Fishing nets for uranium

Fishing nets for uranium

Art by Dr Sweena Chaudhari Joshi

The Madhubani-inspired artwork depicts the work undertaken in Dr. Shilpi Kushwaha's lab at CSIR-Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute. They design specialized materials like nanorings and membranes that selectively fish for Uranium (shown as white spheres) from non-conventional sources like seawater and mining effluents. The separated Uranium on further processing (shown as white trefoils) can be used as a fuel to power nuclear reactors to help provide carbon-neutral energy.