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While I also hate Ford and think he's a national embarrassment, 60% of Ontario's power comes from 3 nuclear power plants: Bruce, Darlington and Pickering. We're

• osuairt 4y ago
  If you have to mine a finite Uranium resource from Saskatchewan, you do not have renewable energy. https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/energy-sources-distribution/renewable-energy/about-renewable-energy/7295 https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/energy-sources...
  • jopsen 4y ago
    Just curious, how finite is it?
  • tedk-42 4y ago
    Agreed. Conflating nuclear with renewable into 'zero carbon' is wrong
  • rowanG077 4y ago
    Is that really a problem? I mean technically any energy resource is finite/non-renewable due to second law of thermodynamics. That doesn't mean anything in practice.
  • throwaway5959 4y ago
    Ah yes, the old “what will we do in 10000 years when the Uranium runs out” problem.
    • naasking 4y ago
      Easily mined uranium will deplete in less than 100 years unless we start using breeder or thorium reactors that are more efficient in using up fuel.
      • deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      • arcticbull 4y ago
        100,000 years supply is dissolved in the ocean. Breeder technology, and (thorium fuel cycle) are pretty well understood at this point. In fact, CANDU reactors widely deployed already support thorium fuel cycle. The reason we don't use them is because with all the uranium available, it's not necessary.
        • idiotsecant 4y ago
          We could say the same about lithium supplies. It turns out 'mining' something measured in the parts per billion is enormously damaging to environments and quite expensive to the point of impracticality
          • arcticbull 4y ago
            Early stages, but current state of the art involves putting fabric out that captures the uranium passively. [1] > Mining of underground uranium has environmental challenges not encountered with extracting it from the oceans. And Wai says the fibers, which have affinity for more heavy metals than just uranium, can likely be used one day to clean up toxic waterways themselves. He says the fibers have potential to extract vanadium, an expensive metal used in large scale batteries, from the oceans instead of mining it from the ground. [1] https://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=4514 https://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=4514
            • idiotsecant 4y ago
              Yes, filtering ocean water for material is a well known technique. You need a massive throughput of ocean water for a small output and you also filter salts, other metals, polymers, and sea life. You must further refine those materials to get the stuff you want. You also change the ph of the filtered water in a way that would be disastrous if reinjected, and you consume filter media quickly. That all adds up to a huge waste and massive ecological damage.its simply not practical at scale.
  • thereddaikon 4y ago
    CTRL+F tells me Uranium isn't mentioned once in the page you linked. So where exactly does it prove that running out of Uranium is a problem?
  • multiplegeorges 4y ago
    If you have to contend with the expansion and death of the Sun, you do not have renewable energy.
  • arcticbull 4y ago
    It’s the four billion tons of uranium dissolved in the ocean and the trillion tons that replenish it as it’s removed that I was referring to. [1] [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/07/01/uranium-seawater-extraction-makes-nuclear-power-completely-renewable/?sh=3d8b1ff3159a https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/07/01/uranium-s...