4 ms·

The places where uranium is mined is uninhabitable afterwards :(

godelski 6y ago
Yeah, but because there is a giant hole in the ground, but that's not specific to uranium mining. Luckily 1) uranium is extremely energy dense so we don't have to mine as much of it and 2) people usually don't live where mines open up in the first place. If we're talking about uranium mining you may notice that Canada isn't particularly habitable to begin with. Though in situ mining is pretty popular with uranium because it is cheap and results in less contaminants.
- Klinky 6y ago
  Just because it's energy dense after enrichment, doesn't mean it has high concentrations within mined ore. Most mines operate with only a fraction of a percentage of the ore being uranium, and only a fraction of a percentage of that is U-235, and viable for a nuclear reactor. Some mines use ISL techniques which is similar to fracking. Canada does have Cigar Lake, the highest grade uranium mine in the world (15%), but due to the dangers of high uranium concentrations and the challenging geology, it has not been the easiest to extract. This is to say, you don't just dig up some ore and stuff it in a reactor(it takes a lot of ore to power a reactor), nor is uranium mining a clean process.
adrianN 6y ago
The places where lignite is mined look like this afterwards: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagebau_Garzweiler#/media/Datei:Tagebau_Garzweiler_Panorama_2005.jpg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagebau_Garzweiler#/media/Date... and are planned to become lakes (but at least in Germany nobody knows where the water is supposed to come from). The places where coal is mined under ground need to run pumps forever or the surrounding cities are destroyed. The pumps in Germany's Ruhrgebiet consume about 70MW continuously. In a couple of decades the pumps will have consumed more energy than we got out of the coal. And, of course, if we continue to burn coal in a couple of decades largeish parts of the globe might become uninhabitable to humans.

Yeah, but because there is a giant hole in the ground, but that's not specific to uranium mining. Luckily 1) uranium is extremely energy dense so we don't have to mine as much of it and 2) people usually don't live where mines open up in the first place. If we're talking about uranium mining you may notice that Canada isn't particularly habitable to begin with. Though in situ mining is pretty popular with uranium because it is cheap and results in less contaminants.

Klinky 6y ago
Just because it's energy dense after enrichment, doesn't mean it has high concentrations within mined ore. Most mines operate with only a fraction of a percentage of the ore being uranium, and only a fraction of a percentage of that is U-235, and viable for a nuclear reactor. Some mines use ISL techniques which is similar to fracking. Canada does have Cigar Lake, the highest grade uranium mine in the world (15%), but due to the dangers of high uranium concentrations and the challenging geology, it has not been the easiest to extract. This is to say, you don't just dig up some ore and stuff it in a reactor(it takes a lot of ore to power a reactor), nor is uranium mining a clean process.

adrianN 6y ago

The places where lignite is mined look like this afterwards: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagebau_Garzweiler#/media/Datei:Tagebau_Garzweiler_Panorama_2005.jpg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagebau_Garzweiler#/media/Date... and are planned to become lakes (but at least in Germany nobody knows where the water is supposed to come from). The places where coal is mined under ground need to run pumps forever or the surrounding cities are destroyed. The pumps in Germany's Ruhrgebiet consume about 70MW continuously. In a couple of decades the pumps will have consumed more energy than we got out of the coal. And, of course, if we continue to burn coal in a couple of decades largeish parts of the globe might become uninhabitable to humans.