3 ms·

All we have to do is keep the spent fuel around, and feed it into fast reactors later. Besides that, seawater extraction of uranium is already just five times

• eternauta3k 3y ago
  > With fast reactors getting a hundred times as much energy from the same amount of natural uranium, seawater extraction becomes easily economical What fraction of the cost of nuclear comes from the uranium costs?
  • DennisP 3y ago
    "Economics of new nuclear plants are heavily influenced by their capital cost, which accounts for at least 60% of their LCOE"[1] and "fuel costs account for about 28% of a nuclear plant's operating expenses."[2] So 28% of 40% gives about 10%. A lot of that fuel cost is probably fabrication and enrichment, which aren't trivial. But let's say it's the raw ore cost, in which case five times raises total cost by 40% for conventional reactors. But fast reactors use 1% as much uranium ore as conventional reactors, so it'd be 1% of 10%, times five means seawater extraction for fast reactor fuel would account for about half a percent of the cost of power. [1] https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspects/economics-of-nuclear-power.aspx https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/economic-aspec... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_plants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_nuclear_power_pla...