Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     Que Weimin is the secretary general of the China Seawater Uranium Extraction Technology Innovation Alliance. He says that many difficult technological challenges remain in developing practical and cost-effective extraction of valuable minerals from seawater.    
     While the first Chinese uranium extraction plant is scheduled to begin production no later than 2035, Que says that the initial cost of the extracted uranium may well be more than the Chinese nuclear power plants will be able to pay.
     The official schedule set for the date of commercial production is 2050 is also the estimated date of arrival of commercial nuclear fusion reactors. Que was quoted as saying that the extraction “technology can be as challenging as the man-made sun technology needed for practical nuclear fusion.”
     China has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2060 and it has recently accelerated the approval process for building new nuclear power plants. China has turned back to nuclear power as concerns over energy security rises. China has decided that renewable energy sources like wind and solar are not stable so they will need nuclear power plants to stabilize their national electrical grid.
     China has turned to neighbors in Central Asia with uranium deposits, but it remains to be seen whether these relatively small uranium mines can fuel the huge growth being planned for China’s nuclear fleet.
     Uranium and other minerals are only present in seawater in very small amounts. Uranium also binds with oxygen and carbon to form a relatively stable mineral that does not interact easily with other chemicals. This makes the extraction of uranium from seawater very difficult.
      Researchers in China and other countries have developed a variety of solutions to the extraction problem. Currently, the most promising absorbent material is amidoxime which is a chemical compound that can capture particles of uranium-based minerals in seawater. In order to increase its efficiency, engineers are using amidoxime with other materials. These range from rare earths to proteins which can strengthen the bond between amidoxime and uranium.
      The cost of amidoxime extraction remains high. In field experiments, the delicate amidoxime based materials can be polluted by other minerals present in seawater such as vanadium. The cost of extracting two pounds of uranium from seawater is more than a thousand dollars. This is ten times the cost of mining and refining uranium on land.
       A researcher from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that China’s interest in extraction technology was not limited to uranium. Products of extraction could also be useful in medicine and defense.  He said, “This is material science at the finest level. This can lead to the development of disruptive technology that can go well beyond the application in the nuclear sector.” The researcher was not identified because he was not authorized to speak about the project.
      The Chinese government is dedicated to the massive expansion of the Chinese fleet of nuclear power reactors. However, there is a great deal of skepticism and fear among the Chinese population with respect to nuclear power. How this might impact the bold Chinese plans for nuclear expansion remains to be seen.