US company seeks to produce uranium for nuclear energy from seawater
Texas-based SuperCritical Materials Corp said on Tuesday it has won an exclusive license from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to extract uranium from seawater, a process that was developed by US labs but is not yet commercial.
The uranium would need to undergo several procedures including conversion into a gas, enrichment, and fuel fabrication before it could power nuclear energy.
Uranium exists naturally in seawater, but at very small concentrations of about 3.3 parts per billion.
SuperCritical hopes to extract uranium from seawater with specially treated acrylic fibers to which dissolved uranium ions bind.
The US now imports up to 75% of the enriched uranium used in reactors, from countries including Russia, France and Germany. Washington has banned Russian uranium imports with waivers permitted until 2028.
“Our long-term goal is to transform the US from a net importer to a net exporter of uranium and nuclear fuels,” said Alexander Canon Bryan, founder and CEO.
Company hopes its first plant can produce 1.85-million pounds (839 150 kg) of uranium a year for at least 40 years. That amount could power about four-million households every year.
Ted Garrish, assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the DoE, said the technology “represents a potentially significant contribution to America’s long-term fuel security and industrial competitiveness.”
Company has not made a final investment decision yet, but says it can develop uranium as soon as 2030 or 2031.
SuperCritical has raised $4.5-million privately and is seeking to become a publicly traded company on Nasdaq this year.
SuperCritical expects to deploy first in Texas and to work with 13 regulatory agencies to get permissions, including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Railroad Commission and the US Coast Guard.