I have heard this commented on before, that we do not have much uranium left in the world. This topic may already have a thread. I tried searching for it to no avail, so I apologize in advance if it does. Anyway could someone elaborate on this?

I have heard this commented on before, that we do not have much uranium left in the world. This topic may already have a thread. I tried searching for it to no avail, so I apologize in advance if it does. Anyway could someone elaborate on this?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium#Resources_and_reserves

 

Generally the cited links from wiki pages are also good resources (not always though).

 

There are always thorium based systems as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium#Resources_and_reserves

 

Generally the cited links from wiki pages are also good resources (not always though).

 

There are always thorium based systems as well.

 

Yeah, I read through that. On that page it seems to imply there is plenty of Uranium left for a long time. But I have seen other educated people on this forum imply otherwise, and I was wondering why.

Like a lot of things, what's currently economically viable is not what will be in the future. The average copper ore that we mine now is laughably poor in comparison to ore mined just a brief time ago historically speaking. Our techniques for concentrating the desired component efficiently improve with time and estimates may be based on current techniques.

 

For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_extraction

 

Furthermore, as limited supply drives the price up, the cost of processing lower and lower grade ore becomes reasonable. At some point extraction from sea water will cost just as much as treating the very low grade ore still available, and there are vast quantities in sea water.

For metal mining there are two aspects:

1) The price of the metal

2) The amount of metal that can be mined and refined at below that price

 

For uranium, there is an additional factor:

3) Whether the uranium is used in a breeder reactor (that produces new nuclear fuel but has nuclear weapons concerns)

 

So if we do the pessimistic calculations, there is little ore that can be mined at current prices and we will use it up in non-breeder reactors fairly quickly. Note that the price of uranium is a very small percentage of the total cost of nuclear power (unlike, say, oil or coal).

I have heard this commented on before, that we do not have much uranium left in the world. This topic may already have a thread. I tried searching for it to no avail, so I apologize in advance if it does. Anyway could someone elaborate on this?

 

As long as your uranium doesn't have to come from the ground as ore there is plenty left. Future civilizations will mine our old nuclear waste depositories for new fuel. I think we should make this as easy as possible and store the stuff in places where it can be removed easily.