A new technology of extracting uranium from seawater at a cost merely twice as high as the currently accepted upper limit of economically justified costs of mining uranium from shallow deposits in Earth crust has been developed in the USA and in Japan.

In his article published in the most recent edition of the Polish “Power and Heat Industry“ journal (“Energetyka Cieplna i Zawodowa”, 4/2017) Professor Strupczewski has pointed out recent advancements in technology of extracting uranium from seawater. Concentration of uranium in seawater is extremely low, however the cost of uranium extracted according to the developed technology is merely twice as high as the currently accepted upper limit of economically justified costs of mining uranium from shallow deposits in the Earth’s crust. The technology was tested in the natural environment of Pacific Ocean. Since cost of fuel is a small fraction of all costs borne by Nuclear Power Plant operators, such an increase in uranium price would be practically insignificant.

Total reserves of uranium extractable from seawater are estimated for 4 billion tonnes, i.e. several hundred times as much as combined reserves in the documented Earth crust deposits. Besides, it was shown that should concentration of uranium in seawater drop, it would be replenished by uranium washed out from rocks containing 100 billion tonnes. According to experts opinions officially accepted by European Parliament, amount of uranium extractable from currently documented deposits in the Earth’s crust is enough to supply currently used thermal neutron reactors for 240 years of operation. Should breeder reactors replace the thermal neutron ones, uranium supplies would be secured for thousands of years.

In view of the recent advancements in extracting technology, uranium becomes a practically inexhaustible source of energy. Even countries that do not have their own uranium ore deposits may develop nuclear power plants confident that uranium supplies will not dry up for millions of years to come. That way nuclear energy wins a higher place in the ranking of potential sources of power than the renewable energy, because it is equally inexhaustible and also makes possible to match supply to the demand – an advantage inaccessible for any weather-dependent source.