International cooperation in the monitoring of radiation levels in seawater near the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant continues. Scientists from China, South Korea, and Switzerland were recently joined by International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi as they collected seawater samples under the “additional measures” framework, which was adapted in 2024 to increase the participation of other countries and enhance the transparency of the IAEA-led analyses.

A new type of material has been demonstrated to greatly enhance the ability to recover uranium from seawater, according to a study published recently in Sustainable Carbon Materials. The research, which could lead to a new way of obtaining uranium for nuclear reactor fuel, was conducted by scientists from Weifang University and North China Electric Power University.

A new material based on amidoxime chemical groups may allow electrochemical extraction technology to extract uranium ions from seawater more efficiently than previous methods, according to a recent study published by the American Chemical Society’s ACS Central Science. If put into practical use, the new method, which was developed by researchers in China, could offer an environmentally sustainable source of fuel for nuclear power plants.