Revolution in nuclear energy: physicists have discovered a nearly limitless fuel source.

Chinese physicists have made a breakthrough in nuclear energy. They have developed a new method for extracting uranium from seawater using candle wax. This technique could revolutionize nuclear energy by unlocking a virtually limitless fuel source. The research has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, reports Interesting Engineering.

Currently, nuclear power plants use uranium to generate electricity. Scientists estimate that the Earth's uranium reserves are approximately 7.6 million tons. This suggests that this source of nuclear fuel could last for about 100 years. In contrast, calculations indicate that there are around 4.5 billion tons of uranium in the Earth's oceans. Such a vast supply of nuclear fuel could provide the entire world with nuclear energy for several thousand years.

However, extracting uranium from seawater is a challenging task. Uranium is present in the ocean in very low concentrations, making its extraction difficult. Now, Chinese physicists have created a new, efficient, and cost-effective method for extracting uranium from seawater.

To achieve this, the researchers developed special beads with a high absorption coefficient. This material was made from a dissolved polymer called polyamidoxime (which attracts metals in water) and melted candle wax. After cooling and removing the wax, the remaining material was ground into porous hydrogel particles. These particles were then encapsulated in alginate-polyacrylic acid, resulting in beads with a diameter of 3 mm.

The physicists tested their beads in both real and simulated marine conditions and obtained promising results. Over 15 days, 4.79 milligrams of uranium per gram of beads was extracted from 10 liters of regular seawater. In simulated seawater, this figure rose to 8.23 milligrams of uranium per gram of beads.

Further experiments demonstrated that the beads could extract uranium from seawater with an efficiency ranging from 95.9% to 99.5%.

The new method of extracting uranium from seawater using inexpensive materials suggests that this technology could potentially provide humanity with a vast amount of nuclear fuel necessary for electricity generation at nuclear power plants. Although nuclear power plants cannot be considered completely clean energy sources due to the waste they produce, they are still preferable to fossil fuels, which exacerbate global warming.

Truly clean energy can be found in thermonuclear energy, which relies on the same process that allows the Sun to exist. However, physicists have yet to achieve success in harnessing thermonuclear energy, and it remains uncertain when it will be produced on a large scale.