4 ms·

> nuclear seems to have a limited impact on nature I mostly agree, but don't forget about the mining operations: https://phys.org/news/2019-05-uranium-heart-k

• jabl 7y ago
  Even including uranium mining, nuclear power has lower material throughput than, well, pretty much any energy source including wind and solar. With wind and solar you're harvesting a pretty diffuse energy source so lots of (mostly) steel and concrete needed per unit of energy produced over the lifetime of the plant. Also, with a closed nuclear fuel cycle we could reduce the amount of fuel mining by a factor of 100 or abouts. Heck, we could shut down mining for a couple of centuries while we burn all the uranium we have already dug up. So far there's little interest in that, though, as uranium is pretty cheap.
  • reaperducer 7y ago
    Heck, we could shut down mining for a couple of centuries It seems to already be heading that way. Last week it was announced that the uranium mine in Grants, New Mexico will not reopen because the price of uranium is so low.