mdsolar's Journal: 61 reactors a year

Not long ago, four climate scientists wrote about nuclear power . It is not hard to look up how much uranium can still be mined at a reasonable cost. In terms of how quickly we use it now, there is about 80 years left.

The climate scientists pointed out that fossil fuel electricity generation could be replaced if 61 reactors a year were built for 35 years. So, 61 reactor per year. 35 years: 2135 reactors. 5.3 times number of current reactors. On average over 35 years, the rate of uranium consumption goes to 1+5.3/2 current rate, about 3.65 times faster. Available uranium will last 80 years with no change so 22 years at the new rate. So, we'd run out of uranium before finishing the build.

It is fine to propose this kind of scenario for renewable energy, but for technology that requires fuel, you need to check that there is some fuel. That is, after all, why we pursue fusion energy. We realized in the 1970s that both coal and uranium would run out. Duterium is abundant enough that it doesn't have that problem.