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SuperCritical Materials licenses technology for uranium seawater extraction
Last week, Austin, Texas–based nuclear fuel start-up SuperCritical Materials announced that it has secured a license from the Department of Energy for a patented uranium and critical materials adsorbent manufacturing process originally developed by a team led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
SuperCritical aims to use this license to extract uranium from seawater at an industrial scale in the United States and abroad.
Z. Miles, A. Balodhi, T. Seuaciuc-Osorio, J. J. Wall, M. Guimaraes, A. Zevalkink, S. K. Chakrapani
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 8 | August 2024 | Pages 1279-1294
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2291602
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Grade 91 steel has been used in nuclear and fossil power plants since the 1970s. Manufacturing variabilities resulting from manufacturing, repair, and management activities have been attributed to lowered creep and fatigue life. This paper characterizes the elastic, thermal, and anelastic properties of P91 steel with different microstructures. Eight different microstructural conditions were identified as acceptable, gross, and gradual degradations. Ultrasonic testing was used to measure velocities, and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy was used to measure internal friction. The thermal diffusivity was measured along with Vicker’s hardness and grain size. A model for internal friction was used to combine the measured elastic and thermal properties. The results suggest that the current understanding of internal friction and its sources may be incomplete for complex microstructures like grade 91. From an nondestructive evaluation perspective, the results suggest that the internal friction has the highest sensitivity to microstructure changes, compared to elastic and thermal properties.