3 ms·
Costs to operate the ship would be more than the recovered uranium would generate. Meaning you wouldn't recover near enough uranium to break even on refueling
by photochemsyn 2y ago
Costs to operate the ship would be more than the recovered uranium would generate. Meaning you wouldn't recover near enough uranium to break even on refueling the ship when it was needed. Same problem with gold (Fritz Haber famously tried this scheme thinking he could erase Germany's WWI war debts, usurious though they were, with gold from seawater). Concentration is just too low to make such processes feasible.
- jvanderbot 2y agoThe synthetic fuel is what you sell. The uranium keeps you producing fuel for cheaper than O&G traditional extraction. But you're right: Just put a off-the-shelf modular reactor on the ship, then use that power to synthesize payload fuel from CO2, and the gold, uranium, etc are just helpful extras.