5 ms·

> we have uranium for the next 10 000 of years at least. No we don't. If you keep up with energy demand it's more like 300-1000 years.

• jevgeni 11y ago
  And assume in the next 300-1000 years nuclear technology stays the same.
• dredmorbius 11y ago
  Given current rates of nuclear electricity generation, and conventional reserves, about 75-80 years. At full energy supplied by nucelar, closer to 6. If suggestions that 2ppm concentrations of uranium can be recovered from seawater, possibly a few thousand years, though that strikes me as a systemically risky proposition. I've seen estimates for thorium all over the map, as well as other breeder-type fuels. Between refining, proliferation, reprocessing, and waste, many risks. We're also talking about nuclear power plant commissioning and decommissioning rates on the order of one per day, until doomsday, with 15,000+ plants required worldwide. And nuclear still doesn't, on its own, address the liquid fuels problem. Or other resource issues: fresh water, topsoil, phosphate, copper, tin, lithium, etc. We're facing sharp limits on these and many other mineral resources.
• Turing_Machine 11y ago
  Yes, we do. We have enough for billions, with a b, of years. http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/cohen.html http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/cohen.html