Technology
FROM SEAWATER TO NUCLEAR FUEL
Transforming decades of U.S. government research into a new source of uranium
The world’s oceans contain an estimated 4.5 billion metric tons of dissolved uranium. SuperCritical Materials is developing the technology and infrastructure to recover this globally distributed resource and expand future nuclear fuel supply.
SuperCritical holds an exclusive commercial license to DOE/PNNL-developed uranium adsorbent technology. Science has demonstrated that uranium can be captured from seawater and recovered from the adsorbent. SuperCritical is demonstrating a repeatable, cost-competitive system on an industrial scale.
HOW IT WORKS
01 — DEPLOY
Uranium-selective adsorbent is deployed in seawater.
02 — ADSORB
Dissolved uranium and other metals bind to the adsorbent.
03 — RECOVER
The material is retrieved and processed to recover the captured uranium.
04 — REUSE
The adsorbent is prepared for another deployment cycle.
SuperCritical is engineering this deploy–adsorb–recover–reuse process for repeated operation at progressively larger scale.
FROM MATERIALS SCIENCE TO OFFSHORE SYSTEMS
Commercialization requires systems capable of deploying and retrieving large quantities of adsorbent efficiently in marine environments.
Working with the University of Michigan, SuperCritical is testing adsorbent performance, packing configurations, deployment and retrieval equipment, and hydrodynamics. This work is informing future offshore pilot systems.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO URANIUM SUPPLY
Unlike conventional uranium production, seawater recovery does not depend on locating and developing an ore body. Uranium is continuously present throughout the world’s oceans at a low, relatively consistent concentration.
SuperCritical is developing a reusable recovery system with the potential for a fundamentally different resource footprint. Environmental performance, permitting and economics remain subject to testing and validation.
PROVING SCALE AND ECONOMICS
The question is no longer simply whether uranium can be recovered from seawater, but whether it can be recovered repeatedly, reliably and economically at industrial scale.
Testing and future offshore pilots will inform economic modeling, feasibility engineering and demonstration-scale system design.
BUILDING THE FUEL LAYER FOR THE NEXT NUCLEAR AGE
SuperCritical is moving uranium-from-seawater technology from government-developed science toward industrial infrastructure—with the potential to expand uranium supply and strengthen U.S. energy security. Uranium exists. Our job is to engineer a system that can recover it at scale.