Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Blair Gilmore's avatar

Thank you for you concise explanation of material that Thunberg should have been taught in school, instead of warping the minds of the gullible. The saddest part is the bulk of humanity doesn't know how the physical world works and prefers the uninformed rabblings of celebrities. Your efforts might reach a few thousand who are already pre-declined to follow actual science. But this will hardly stem the flow of the herd who happily follow the charlatans. I think an Atlas Shrugged type of moment will be upon us at some point the way the World is going.

Thanks again for your efforts to stem the tide of ignorance.

Expand full comment
Garbled memo's avatar

Thanks for writing this - as a geologist, I can say there is plenty of Uranium, always has been. Some of the things people don't realize is a) you need very little uranium to make a LOT of energy and b) we have a lot more Uranium than you might think and c) our uranium costs are inconsequential to the cost of the resulting power, I.e. I can increase the price I pay for uranium several fold and have only marginal impact on the price of electricity from a nuclear power plant. Geologists know that the availability of an element is related tow two things - it's abundance AND how much you are willing to pay. As prices go up, more and more ore are found, and ore at lower concentrations is utilized. Hence "reserves" of a mineral is based on both factors. Double the price you pay for uranium, and your reserves will double, triple, or even increase by a factor of 10.

Just as an example, Uranium and Thorium are present in coal (carbon is very sticky). Burn the coal, and the uranium and thorium are concentrated in the ash. The energy available in that source of uranium and thorium is > the energy stored in the coal in the first place!

In 2007, Sparton Resources from Canada reported producing yellowcake (mostly U3O8) from fly ash from a coal-fired plant. Uranium levels were found to be about 160 ppm, corresponding to about 0.2 kg of yellowcake from a ton of ash. This compares to the 1,000 ppm or more in uranium ore. Sparton claimed to be able to extract a kilogram of uranium this way for $77. That might be > $100/kg now, and the current price is around $50/kg. So, with a modest price increase in uranium, coal ash becomes a viable source of uranium. And we have a LOT of coal ash - a hundred years' worth accumulated.

My guess is the fissionable materials we have available are essentially infinite - hundreds of thousands of years' worth.

Expand full comment
3 more comments...

No posts