Design of a Symbiotic Device to Harvest Uranium from Seawater through the use of Shell Enclosures

摘要

This paper detailed the design and analysis of a symbiotic system to harvest uranium from seawater. Building upon lessons learned regarding the adsorbent strength as well as the results of previous designs and testing of 1/50th scale systems, the Symbiotic Machine for Ocean uRanium Extraction (SMORE) utilizes a modularized design with minimal material. It is hypothesized that the limited material used will translate into low manufacturing, deployment, and operational costs. Detailed cost-analysis of SMORE is underway and will be the topic of a future publication. At present, this design is being developed into a 1/10th scale prototype for testing in an ocean environment. The results of this fabrication will inform the feasibility of manufacturing such a system on a large scale, while the ocean testing will provide valuable experience which will inform further improvements to the design to make it less susceptible to failure in a marine environment. In tandem, failure mode effect analysis and wave loading analysis are being conducted on the structure. Finally, the stationary and motorized chemical tank systems are currently being designed and built for bench testing, the results of which will be the topic of a future publication.