Nuclear Power is Back... but will we Run Out of Uranium?

With the energy crisis forcing gas prices higher and higher, many countries are turning to Nuclear power as an alternate energy source despite its infamous history. But with global demand set to increase very soon, is there enough Uranium to go around?

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[lollerpomp]

Saying that Finland opens it’s first plant is just wrong to say. We have 2 plants in finland and the article you quote is about new reactor 3. Not a new plant. Overall i would agree on Fin being pro nuclear as we lack means to many other sources.

[itsnotalwaysblackandwhite]

Don’t worry about running out of Uranium. Australia has a zillion pounds/kilos of yellow cake. We export the stuff. After all we don’t use any of it ourselves. That’s not strictly true, we have a very small reactor at Lucas Heights that produces Uranium for medical uses.

[Isaac_L..]

I also think the Simpsons is partially responsible for the widespread negative connotation associated with nuclear power. Coal literally rose to power on the backs of dead children, yet has never been discredited the way nuclear has, mostly because nobody joked about it.

[cxncpjw]

As an Australian, our attitude towards nuclear power is quite frankly disappointing. We have some of the largest uranium deposits in the world and what do we do? We make nuclear power illegal. We have a whole lot to lose from climate change but lack the spine to take the necessary action. The biggest disappointment is the fact that we let Britain nuke us in exchange for reactor technology and then proceeded to not build a single reactor. We could've gone all but Carbon-neutral decades ago but instead we either have spineless politicians who do nothing or stupid but well meaning environmentalists who think renewables will solve our problems.

[Elongated_Muskrat]

Really the lesson should be to diversify energy sources to prevent huge impact from a single economic or political event.

[lollolson]

I'm glad people are finally starting to come to their senses about nuclear. it's been clear for the past half a century that it's the best option we've got and will have for many years to come.

[SDM-Zone]

We could also use Thorium reactors instead. Uranium reactors are mostly used because the military spent all this money building up the technology because they wanted nukes.

[karankapoor]

Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest energy that we have at our disposal rn, we should definitely build more nuclear reactors till we are completely able to transition into green energy

[antonshudder]

with nuclear breeder reactors you can recycle the waste a few times and reuses it making it less radioactive and deadly it's alot better then the old reactors that most people think of which were built 30-40 years ago edit: hell there are designs that don't need any maintience and can run for over a decade before you can just cover it up that one isn't as great an option

[cacojo]

In switzerland there is a popular initiative to build new nuclear power plant. This means we will vote on the matter if the authors collect 100'000 signatures by march 2024.

[psyOmicron]

I'm curious though, while I'm no nuclear physicist, from what I've read is Thoriums is the best nuclear energy source if we wanted safe clean sustainable nuclear energy. It's advocated as safer, cheaper, and produces way better readily usable energy. So why is everyone still fussing about Uranium when there's a much better nuclear alternative?

[Mr.Nichan]

I love how you went through all 20 countries. I wasn't expecting that and was ready to be disappointed by you skipping most of them.

[rwtgrh]

We still have Thorium. It is safer and more abundant, at a concentration of 0.0006% in Earths crust vs. 0.00018% for Uranium.

[jds]

Just imagine if we had continued down the nuclear power routes we started in the 50s and built enough to power our civilization's needs before the econuts freak outs. There has been 3 nuclear disasters. One was an equipment malfunction and wasn't really that bad, more psychological. One was caused by a whole list of human errors. Likewise, one was caused by 2 major disasters back to back, accompanied by preventive measures that weren't planned out well. None of these problems will happen again. Cant say there will be absolutely no problem in the future, but nuclear is the best option. Heck, Solar has a higher toxic waste profile than nuclear. Then we have the fact of new generation small scale reactors which are revolutionary.

[PioterCygan]

Saying that nuclear is dangerous because of chernobyl/fukushima is stupid for me. Chernobyl was so poorly managed that it was human's fault and we dont have danger of fukushima accident as we dont have earthquakes and it was horribly placed.

[Lomhow]

Thorium supplies should be considered just as much as uranium. It's a good alternative fuel source for reactors. I would love to see an episode on it.

[LilyZayli]

This genuinely gives me a lot more hope about us meeting any climate targets than any news I've heard in a long time, I don't know what caused this shift but I'm glad it happened.

[thenotsodemocraticrepublic]

I feel like The main take away everyone got from Chernobyl was “wow nuclear energy bad” when really it should’ve been, “wow, putting incompetent party yes-men in charge of vital infrastructure bad.”

[iCrapBubbles]

I've always said, since even before the energy crisis, that nuclear energy is the future direction that our planet needs to go, in my opinion.

[paulluka]

if your energy supplier is going to start wars and makes you pay for it then any alternative is better until you can able to rely solely on renewables.