this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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The biggest, best argument against nuclear energy is the limited fuel supply.
If the world replaced base load power with nuclear (as a nuclear plus solar plus wind energy mix) we would only have enough uranium for something like 50 years
The waste storage problem isn't worth it for so little time, but OTOH we need to solve the storage problem anyway, and 50 years of CO2 clean power would be useful for aiding decarbonising the energy supply
spent fuel can be recycled and it isn't a terrible complex process to do so
even if we didn't recycle spent fuel there's far more than 50 years worth left on land
even if we ran out of land sources spent fuel there's 4.5 billion tons of uranium dissolved in the ocean
If I remember correctly non-viable fuel ratio is anything under 95% pure.