Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

Post by Drblessing » Thu, May 26, 2022, 11:17 PM UTC

freemint wrote: post #625

Drblessing wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering the current energy situation in Europe and America, I foresee $10^x going into coal/gas/fossil fuels soon.

So a 10^x investment now in atomic power will continue to do that for 10 years until that has an effect. (You will not develop a cheap new reactor type and build it out at scale with less then 10 years) A 10^x investment in solar & storage now will curb the need for 10^x being spend on fossile stuff over the next 10 years.

True. Tesla just installed a huge solar farm and battery pack near Las Vegas. It will be interesting to see the grid of the future. I think it would be a shame if mankind never harnessed the power of the atom though.

Post by natmaka » Fri, May 27, 2022, 4:05 AM UTC

lazide wrote: post #643

natmaka wrote: post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, and there AFAIK were some "tandem" (desalination+uranium) projects, however nothing appeared therefore there may be severe practical constraints or technical hurdles. Maybe later(?)

Part of it I think is Uranium is easy to get economically right now, and has a pretty limited set of potential buyers (and the set isn’t growing very quickly). Most Uranium mines (15000 worked claims in the Midwest in particular) no one even bothers with. Cool or not, if one of the 5 major mines decides to cut prices, you’d better be awfully efficient right now.

Uranium was cheap from the 1960 until now, bar ~3 years around 2007 (a 'Bubble'), however research towards ways to not depend on it (mostly towards breeder reactors) was very intense in many nations from the 1950's to 2000, because of an economic perspective (there is no clear reason for uranium prices to stay low, especially after a nuclear 'Renaissance' and given that it is tied to ore grade, which gets lower and lower), a social perspective (breeders and such reduce the amount of nuclear waste and risk associated to it), and for some nations also a strategic perspective (all existing uranium sellers live under a superpower).

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?

Re: Why is the nuclear power industry stagnant?