EXTRACTION OF URANIUM FROM SEAWATER BY AMIDOXIME RESINS

The adsorption behaviour for uranium of four kinds of amidoxime resinst RNH, RCH, RAH and RPH in seawater has been investigated. It has been found that all these resins are capable of adsorbing rapidly uranium from U-cnriched seawater with a high uranium uptake.
RNH was able to adsorb uranium satisfactorily from natural seawater, and the uranium uptake of RNH with a degree of cross-linking of 3-5 mol% was above 200 μg/g-R (adsorption for 15 days). The uranium uptakes of RCH, RAH and RPH from natural seawater were much lower than the uranium uptake of RNH. The factors which caused the difference between resins RCH, RAH, RPH and resin RNH are discussed.