SuperCritical wins US licence for seawater uranium tech

SuperCritical Materials has secured an exclusive U.S. Department of Energy licence to commercialize patented technology that extracts uranium from seawater, positioning the company to help address an emerging nuclear fuel supply crunch as advanced reactor deployment accelerates.

The licence covers a patented adsorbent manufacturing process developed through the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy and led by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the private Austin-based company said Tuesday. SuperCritical has exclusive rights to manufacture and deploy the technology in the U.S. before expanding into allied countries. 

“DOE has invested in proving that this extraction process works, and we are pleased to see this technology moving toward commercial deployment,” Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Ted Garrish said. “As the United States accelerates advanced nuclear energy deployment, ensuring reliable domestic sources of nuclear fuel becomes increasingly important. This technology represents a potentially significant contribution to America’s long-term fuel security and industrial competitiveness.”

Wider supply needs

The licence comes as the U.S. shifts from demonstrating advanced nuclear reactors to securing the uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and fuel-fabrication capacity needed to support large-scale deployment. Growing demand for uranium, conversion, enrichment, High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) and fuel fabrication has created a potential supply bottleneck that companies such as SuperCritical hope to address. The company said it also intends to recover other strategic minerals from seawater while supporting federal efforts to strengthen domestic critical mineral production and nuclear fuel security.

The company said the world’s oceans contain about 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium — more than 1,000 times identified land-based reserves — offering what it sees as a virtually limitless long-term fuel source. 

However, skeptics of mining uranium from seawater say its commercial production could be decades away and the low grades of uranium in seawater make processing a huge challenge.

SuperCritical said its technical team includes former Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists, including co-founder Gary Gill, a leading researcher in seawater uranium extraction.

CEO Alexander Canon Bryan said the company aims to become a key supplier of nuclear fuel infrastructure needed to support what it calls the emerging “Intelligence Economy,” driven by AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries.