Chinese team extracts uranium from seawater at 8 times the US target rate

Read the original at South China Morning Post ↗
Cite

Xin, L. (2026, September 4). Chinese team extracts uranium from seawater at 8 times the US target rate. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3366307/chinese-team-extracts-uranium-seawater-8-times-us-target-rate?utm_source=rss_feed

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

South China Morning Post · collected 2026-09-04 · by Ling Xin

Quick Summary

A Chinese research team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao has developed a material called PhosCage, which they claim can extract uranium from seawater more efficiently than previously thought possible. The researchers achieved an extraction rate 8 times higher than the US target rate, capturing 22.55mg per gram of uranium over seven cycles of reuse. This breakthrough uses a sponge-like molecular structure that acts as a chemical trap to capture the nuclear fuel. The team believes this novel approach could lay the groundwork for large-scale uranium recovery from seawater.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-04, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A Chinese research team, affiliated with the *Chinese Academy of Sciences* in *Qingdao*, has developed a material called PhosCage that can extract uranium from seawater at an impressive rate. The team claims their method opens up a new approach to recovering nuclear fuel from oceans worldwide. Using millimeter-sized beads** made from PhosCage, they were able to capture *22.55mg of uranium per gram* and maintain this effectiveness through seven cycles of reuse. This achievement exceeds the target extraction rate set by the US, which is at a much slower pace. The success of PhosCage has potential for large-scale use in the future.

Written for “China's Seawater Uranium Discovery” on 2026-10-21, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 China's Seawater Uranium Discovery
Science · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
5
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 5 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
64/100
South China Morning Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Science
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-04 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

South China Morning Post · 2799 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Ling Xin
12 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Also by Ling Xin
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2026-10-19 · South China Morning Post
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2026-10-18 · South China Morning Post
New details emerge in US investigations of Chinese-American scientists over China links
2026-10-16 · South China Morning Post
China-US astronomy team may have found possible relic of a recent ‘gold factory’
2026-10-13 · South China Morning Post
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 12 articles by Ling Xin →

Topics

CAS Chinese PhosCage Qingdao the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Subjects

CAS ORG · 1× Chinese NORP · 1× Qingdao GPE · 1× Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology ORG · 1× the Chinese Academy of Sciences ORG · 1×

Narrative

Researchers developed a material that they say opens up a ‘novel approach’ to recover the nuclear fuel from the world’s oceans The team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao did this using a material they developed called PhosCage – a sponge-like molecular structure filled with phosphate groups that act as chemical traps.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-04
2026-09-04 · South China Morning Post
Chinese team extracts uranium from seawater at 8 times the US target rate · assertive framing

Claims (5 extracted, 0 hedged)

Chinese team extracts uranium from seawater at 8 times the US target rate asserted
team → extract → rate
Researchers developed a material that they say opens up a ‘novel approach’ to recover the nuclear fuel from the world’s oceans The team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao did this using a material they developed called PhosCage – a sponge-like molecular structure filled with phosphate groups that act as chemical traps. asserted
that → develop → traps
They then turned PhosCage into millimetre-sized beads that are easier to deploy and retrieve in the open ocean. asserted
that → turn → ocean
The beads captured 22.55mg per gram and continued to work through seven cycles of reuse. asserted
beads → capture → reuse
“This work opens up a novel approach to extracting uranium from seawater and lays the groundwork for adsorbents that can capture more uranium and eventually be used on a large scale,” the team from the CAS’ Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology said in the statement. asserted
team → open → statement
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