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zheng89120
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So, I recently came upon a SA article "How long will the world's uranium supplies last?" (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-long-will-global-uranium-deposits-last), and one of the paragraphs talked about:
"Two technologies could greatly extend the uranium supply itself. Neither is economical now, but both could be in the future if the price of uranium increases substantially. First, the extraction of uranium from seawater would make available 4.5 billion metric tons of uranium—a 60,000-year supply at present rates. Second, fuel-recycling fast-breeder reactors, which generate more fuel than they consume, would use less than 1 percent of the uranium needed for current LWRs. Breeder reactors could match today's nuclear output for 30,000 years using only the NEA-estimated supplies."
I am not in nuclear engineering, but I was wondering about the potential of extracting uranium from seawater. I am interested, because if this could be practical, fission could become a very desirable source of energy. Thanks for reading.
"Two technologies could greatly extend the uranium supply itself. Neither is economical now, but both could be in the future if the price of uranium increases substantially. First, the extraction of uranium from seawater would make available 4.5 billion metric tons of uranium—a 60,000-year supply at present rates. Second, fuel-recycling fast-breeder reactors, which generate more fuel than they consume, would use less than 1 percent of the uranium needed for current LWRs. Breeder reactors could match today's nuclear output for 30,000 years using only the NEA-estimated supplies."
I am not in nuclear engineering, but I was wondering about the potential of extracting uranium from seawater. I am interested, because if this could be practical, fission could become a very desirable source of energy. Thanks for reading.
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