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NNadir

(33,477 posts)
3. Yes, phosphorous has a definite affinity for uranium. A key reagent in the PUREX process is...
Wed Feb 26, 2020, 12:57 AM
Feb 2020

...tributyl phosphate.

(I believe that the time for the PUREX process has passed, and I favor some of the newer pyroprocessing/electrorefining processes that have been developed in the last 15 to 20 years. This said there are a number of other phosphate reagents that have been developed for various solvent extraction processes for not just the actinides, but for the lanthanides as well.)

There was another more recent paper published on the subject of isolating uranium from phosphate mined for fertilizer than the one I posted in the OP.

It is not really a research paper, but is an open sourced "viewpoint" article in EST, with a somewhat unfortunate title:

Making Uranium Recovery from Phosphates Great Again?

I recalled reading something along these lines, but simply used the search tool at the EST web page to find the article I posted in the OP.

It's written by two Austrians and a German, scientists from countries that are officially, and ignorantly I might add, anti-nuclear.

Interestingly they propose securing uranium should be reconsidered as a result of "Increased environmental awareness, national energy security..." to use their exact words.

They argue that 15% of the world's uranium supply could be provided by removing it from phosphate, with concomitant reduced risk to the food supply.

Again, I argue that we don't need more uranium than is already in stock if we embrace breed and burn technology, which is increasingly well understood, but it is interesting to note that the idea that nuclear energy is superior to all other forms of energy is a subject of increasing awareness.

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