3 ms·
How plentiful is Uranium? I'm not a nuclear engineer, so the 3 grams metric isn't meaningful to me -- is that a considerable amount?
by madmax96 10y ago
How plentiful is Uranium? I'm not a nuclear engineer, so the 3 grams metric isn't meaningful to me -- is that a considerable amount?
- Roboprog 10y ago3 grams is between about 1/6 and 1/8 once. Of course, only a small portion of uranium in a reactor core is converted to something else. After that, they replace the fuel as its output drops a bit. Disclaimer: I don't know enough to check the "grandparent" post's math. I'm assuming the calc is right in that it's the fission energy, and not total destruction of matter E=mc^2 / matter-antimatter style.
- m-i-l 10y agoThanks. That helps with my original question - how portable will this be? If it just needs a very small nuclear reactor with a tiny amount of fuel, then they should be able to have a power source "that generates 25 megawatts" and can "fire 10 times a minute through a barrel capable of lasting 1,000 rounds" on a ship. But what about a truck? Having a weapon with a 125 mile range isn't necessarily all that great if it is too big and heavy to get within 125 miles of most of the things you want to shoot at.