A gram or so of silver per kW is the rarest component of PVs, and the total ammount of (recyclable) silver per year the PV industry uses is going down even as p

A gram or so of silver per kW is the rarest component of PVs, and the total ammount of (recyclable) silver per year the PV industry uses is going down even as production increases. The copper is less than a commensurable amount of steam generation. Silicon refining energy is a hundredth or so of output and declining rapidly steel in a nuclear reactor outmasses the silicon and has a lower but rapidly closing energy requirement. Frames can be aluminium or even wood. The glass outmasses steel in a nuclear reactor, but not concrete, and has a lower carbon footprint than concrete and is reusable. Wind uses copper and niobium, neither of which are essential to the concept. The copper is currently more than steam generation, but some can and is being swapped for abundant aluminium. Magnet free stators are being worked on extensively and are close to cost competitive. Steel use of the largest turbines is competitive with nuclear so iron alloying materials are a wash. Nuclear uses zirconium, uranium, cadmium, silver, and a variety of other exotic elements as well as the copper for the steam turbines. It is difficult to find out how much, but back of the envelope (0.1% of the fuel assembly being control rod so 0.2g/GJ) would indicate it's more constrained by silver and cadmium than PV is by silver. Plus it is high level waste at end of life and you need it all up front. The only question is whether the concrete in wind is worth the CO2 as this is the only resource where nuclear wins.