In Situ Uranium Recovery Technology

The in-situ process uses injection and extraction wells to circulate water through the ore body, removing the mineral, but leaving the rock undisturbed. Each well is just like the water well used to supply water to a home.

The native groundwater has a sodium bicarbonate solution similar to club soda added to it. Gaseous oxygen is also added to mobilize the uranium, which is then "washed" from the sand grains by the carbonate. We use the same technique as that of a home-based water softener, except on a much larger scale, to remove the mineral from solution.

The uranium product is very low in radioactivity, and therefore must be enriched before it can be used to produce electricity.

Read, in depth, about the technology (similar to secondary oil-recovery) in the downloadable PDF.
Download Technology PDF (780k)

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