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uranium and plutonium dont have to be mined? if you think panels shouldnt be made because they contain elements that need to be mined then you probably also thi
by bronz 10y ago
uranium and plutonium dont have to be mined? if you think panels shouldnt be made because they contain elements that need to be mined then you probably also think we should stop making computers because they also contain the same element: silicon?
- DennisP 10y agoUranium has to be mined, but only in small amounts. A conventional one-gigawatt reactor consumes a single 18-wheeler truckload of fuel rods in 18 months. If we switched to either thorium reactors or uranium fast reactors, we'd use a hundred times less fuel than that. Some uranium mines now are little more than a pair of wells; one pumps water down to a uranium deposit, the other pulls back up water with uranium dissolved in it. Because uranium is water soluble, it exists in vast quantities in the ocean. If we combined fast uranium reactors with seawater extraction, then nuclear would be a renewable resource with a very light footprint.
- tertius 10y agoI didn't say that those don't have to be mined. I don't know the safety comparisons between the two. Also, remark on deaths caused in comparison if you don't feel that that's too hard to defend.