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Blake, Wm. The Sea of Time and Space. 1821.

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Scientists in China have developed a method for extracting uranium from ordinary seawater, which may provide humanity with an effectively unlimited energy source.

According to current estimates, there are about 4.5 billion tons of uranium in the sea, in the form of dissolved uranyl ions. This energy source—essentially over a billion years worth of nuclear fuel—has been largely untapped due to extraction methods proving largely unsuccessful.

To extract the uranium, the team has engineered a flexible cloth that is woven from carbon fibers and coated with a special treatment. The cloth provides tiny pockets that capture the uranium.

In tests, 12.6 mg of uranium per gram of water were extracted over 24 days, a higher amount and faster rate than any previous extraction method. With these optimistic results, the scientists hope to expand their method to encompass a grander scale.