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This will make Putin happy, as it increases the west's reliance on the Russian nuclear fuel supply chain. Russia owned 40% of the total uranium conversion infr

This will make Putin happy, as it increases the west's reliance on the Russian nuclear fuel supply chain. Russia owned 40% of the total uranium conversion infrastructure in the world in 2020, and 46% of the total uranium enrichment capacity. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/russia-dominates-global-nuclear-reactor-and-fuel-supply-chains.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/23/russia-dominates-global-nucl...

m_eiman 3y ago
Sweden has plenty uranium, all we need to do is mine it and enrich it! (Apparently a trivial task, according to politicians in charge).
- defrost 3y ago
  9,600 tonnes as "best guess" estimated recoverable according to the 2022 Uranium Red Book .. which is typical for most countries (low (ish)) and it falls on the expensive side per kilo to extract. Australia has about 2 million tonnes, measured, concentrated in three fairly dense sites with a good chance of more elsewhere. Kazakhstan has twice the ore (at much better grades) than Russia .. one of the reasons Russia is keen to hang onto the 'stan satellite states. [Red Book] https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_28569/uranium-resources-production-and-demand-red-book https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_28569/uranium-resources-pro... ADDENDUM: The May 2022 report indirectly (via a CNN link) mentioned above is Reducing Russian Involvement in Western Nuclear Power Markets https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/reducing-russian-involvement-western-nuclear-power-markets/ https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/reducing-... and mentions Russian "dominance" falling from 2018 to 2020 while outling approaches to continue this fall. It seems hardly surprising that one of the two major Cold War super powers has almost but not quite half of the global processing capacity. It seems a trivial exercise to guess who might also have nearly half the global uranium processing capacity.
  - fifilura 3y ago
    I think the willingness to open up your land for an extremely contaminating business is a factor. I am not saying it is good or bad, neither trying to start a NIMBY discussion. But I think Sweden has too strong laws and environmentalist movement (and too little corruption) for a permission to start a uranium mine to happen within a foreseeable future.
    - defrost 3y ago
      > an extremely contaminating business Like Copper mining in Kamloops and Sudbury? Or sloppy WWII era uranium processing in the vicinity of Hanford USA? I suspect (I don't know for sure) that Sweden is unlikely to have the grades for a viable uranium mine. Were that so it's certainly possible to mine uranium in a manner that doesn't contaminate the mine surrounds .. and possible to process raw yellow cake to usable fuel rods at a site built to modern containment standards. There's no need for Sweden (were it possible) to have dirty mines such as the Congo Cold War mines. [1] https://federalmetals.ca/how-does-copper-mining-affect-the-environment/ https://federalmetals.ca/how-does-copper-mining-affect-the-e... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkolobwe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkolobwe
      - fifilura 3y ago
        You gave just started your uphill battle to convince law enforcers and environmentalists about that. Good luck!
        defrost 3y ago
        Not my battle and not the route I'd take :-) My aim is to be resource and energy aware, abreast of options and best practices. I'm absolutely not personally for a nuclear power plant here ( W.Australia ) nor anywhere else .. but were it done, best it done well. Eg: Sweden has the option (should the people all agree) to quickly move to a new nuclear plant by, say, engaging South Korean designs and engineers (they throw them up fast) and contracting yellow cake supply from Canada | Australia. But these are matters of cost, politics, trust in external suppliers, etc.
- legulere 3y ago
  Mining isn't the difficulty, but processing and enrichment. Countries like France and the US are continuing to send billions to Russia for that.
paganel 3y ago
At some point the Western countries will have to choose between "making Putin or Xi happy" and "burning less coal in the interest of some climate statistics", they can't have it both ways. Or they could just revamp their industrial base and try to catch China when it comes to solar panel manufacturing, or to brush away countless environmental protection measures and open up a uranium mine close to places like Aspen, Colorado or to some other places in Idaho recently invaded by California refugees, but I don't see any of those two things happening anytime soon.
- riffraff 3y ago
  Aren't they playing catch up on solar panel manufacturing already? I keep reading news of production plants expanding every other day. And I mean, they don't need to catch up, just have enough of their own production to keep prices low.
  - kramerger 3y ago
    Germany announced a program to manufacture them locally, but I haven't heard any more about that. I think competing with China on commercial terms will never be successful. The CCP is making sure the whole country is acting as one unit and for long term dominance. They can afford to sell solar panels for $0 until all competitors are dead.
    - nyargh 3y ago
      China has been hit with anti-dumping penalties in the US at least once due to solar panel subsides. I believe last year the EU agreed on a huge fund to improve advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity within the bloc, but not sure if that would apply to solar.

m_eiman 3y ago

Sweden has plenty uranium, all we need to do is mine it and enrich it! (Apparently a trivial task, according to politicians in charge).

defrost 3y ago
9,600 tonnes as "best guess" estimated recoverable according to the 2022 Uranium Red Book .. which is typical for most countries (low (ish)) and it falls on the expensive side per kilo to extract. Australia has about 2 million tonnes, measured, concentrated in three fairly dense sites with a good chance of more elsewhere. Kazakhstan has twice the ore (at much better grades) than Russia .. one of the reasons Russia is keen to hang onto the 'stan satellite states. [Red Book] https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_28569/uranium-resources-production-and-demand-red-book https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_28569/uranium-resources-pro... ADDENDUM: The May 2022 report indirectly (via a CNN link) mentioned above is Reducing Russian Involvement in Western Nuclear Power Markets https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/reducing-russian-involvement-western-nuclear-power-markets/ https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/reducing-... and mentions Russian "dominance" falling from 2018 to 2020 while outling approaches to continue this fall. It seems hardly surprising that one of the two major Cold War super powers has almost but not quite half of the global processing capacity. It seems a trivial exercise to guess who might also have nearly half the global uranium processing capacity.
- fifilura 3y ago
  I think the willingness to open up your land for an extremely contaminating business is a factor. I am not saying it is good or bad, neither trying to start a NIMBY discussion. But I think Sweden has too strong laws and environmentalist movement (and too little corruption) for a permission to start a uranium mine to happen within a foreseeable future.
  - defrost 3y ago
    > an extremely contaminating business Like Copper mining in Kamloops and Sudbury? Or sloppy WWII era uranium processing in the vicinity of Hanford USA? I suspect (I don't know for sure) that Sweden is unlikely to have the grades for a viable uranium mine. Were that so it's certainly possible to mine uranium in a manner that doesn't contaminate the mine surrounds .. and possible to process raw yellow cake to usable fuel rods at a site built to modern containment standards. There's no need for Sweden (were it possible) to have dirty mines such as the Congo Cold War mines. [1] https://federalmetals.ca/how-does-copper-mining-affect-the-environment/ https://federalmetals.ca/how-does-copper-mining-affect-the-e... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkolobwe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkolobwe
    - fifilura 3y ago
      You gave just started your uphill battle to convince law enforcers and environmentalists about that. Good luck!
      - defrost 3y ago
        Not my battle and not the route I'd take :-) My aim is to be resource and energy aware, abreast of options and best practices. I'm absolutely not personally for a nuclear power plant here ( W.Australia ) nor anywhere else .. but were it done, best it done well. Eg: Sweden has the option (should the people all agree) to quickly move to a new nuclear plant by, say, engaging South Korean designs and engineers (they throw them up fast) and contracting yellow cake supply from Canada | Australia. But these are matters of cost, politics, trust in external suppliers, etc.
legulere 3y ago
Mining isn't the difficulty, but processing and enrichment. Countries like France and the US are continuing to send billions to Russia for that.

paganel 3y ago

At some point the Western countries will have to choose between "making Putin or Xi happy" and "burning less coal in the interest of some climate statistics", they can't have it both ways. Or they could just revamp their industrial base and try to catch China when it comes to solar panel manufacturing, or to brush away countless environmental protection measures and open up a uranium mine close to places like Aspen, Colorado or to some other places in Idaho recently invaded by California refugees, but I don't see any of those two things happening anytime soon.

riffraff 3y ago
Aren't they playing catch up on solar panel manufacturing already? I keep reading news of production plants expanding every other day. And I mean, they don't need to catch up, just have enough of their own production to keep prices low.
- kramerger 3y ago
  Germany announced a program to manufacture them locally, but I haven't heard any more about that. I think competing with China on commercial terms will never be successful. The CCP is making sure the whole country is acting as one unit and for long term dominance. They can afford to sell solar panels for $0 until all competitors are dead.
  - nyargh 3y ago
    China has been hit with anti-dumping penalties in the US at least once due to solar panel subsides. I believe last year the EU agreed on a huge fund to improve advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity within the bloc, but not sure if that would apply to solar.