<How to Start a Farm with No Land and Little Money The Oil Drum DrumBeat: February 20, 2009>

249 comments on How Long Before Uranium Shortages?

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roflwaffle on February 19, 2009 - 2:19pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Nearly eleven assuming 6g-U/kg-absorbent is used. ;) Course, it's something of a non issue since the aim was to minimize cost (at around $150/lb), and if we're looking to minimize the volume needed we can probably construct something with greater absorption at greater cost per lb of Uranium.

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GRLCowan on February 19, 2009 - 5:06pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

My persistently unanswered question.

'Gail the Actuary' clearly shares Ugo Bardi's optimism that uranium's apparently extreme abundance is not real.

By pretending that this is pessimism, I suppose they both justify a lack of conservatism in their research. So there is no reference in the above article to the secular variation of the IAEA's "Red Book" reports. Two recent ones that came out two years apart showed a rate of increase of uranium reserves in that time that worked out to the thermal equivalent, if burned unenriched in CANDU reactors, of 100 million barrels of oil per day.

Also, haven't the problems in the Kazakh U mining industry worked out to 8651 tonnes U in 2008, as opposed to almost 2000 tonnes less in 2007? No, it was only 8521.

(How fire can be domesticated)

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Gail the Actuary on February 19, 2009 - 6:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

There is a reference to it, but I called it by its real name, not the Red Book. It is the he global nuclear fuel market: supply and demand 2007-2030. It is the report that supposedly has peak production in 2015. If someone will buy me a copy, I will read it myself.

My response to a very similar comment below from Advancednano was:

Kazakhstan is one area that is actually growing, but as the link you cite notes:

KazAtomProm has forged major strategic links with Russia, Japan and China, as well as taking a significant share in the international nuclear company Westinghouse.

It is not clear to me how much of its production will filter back to the West.

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GRLCowan on February 20, 2009 - 4:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
there is no reference in the above article to the secular variation of the IAEA's "Red Book" reports. Two recent ones that came out two years apart showed a rate of increase of uranium reserves in that time that worked out to the thermal equivalent, if burned unenriched in CANDU reactors, of 100 million barrels of oil per day.

There is a reference to it, but I called it by its real name, not the Red Book...

The parts of my posting I have emphasized show that 'Gail the Actuary' is refuting a remark that is not exactly the one I made.

Whenever the Red Book comes out I don't buy it, but someone does, and reports the upshot: the estimated reserves. Looking only at these numbers' change over time is what enables us to compute that 100 MBOE/d of uranium reserve growth has been occurring.

(How fire can be domesticated)

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249 comments on How Long Before Uranium Shortages?

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