Comment Re:Politicians will be stupid but scientists/techn (Score 2) 356
All this is irrelevant. Uranium, is limited in supply, even if it's a large supply. This limit means we will eventually have to stop using it and use something else. So why bother starting?
Whilst living on this planet the sun will provide us with all the energy we need if we can just work out how to harness it effectively. Save the Fissile materials for when we *really* need them, like if/when we get into deep space exploration.
There are enough fissile materials for 100,000 years worth of power, once you put thorium and breeders and non-traditional uranium sources into the mix. Even if this is off by an order of magnitude, a 10,000 year supply of power lasts longer than recorded human history. To me, this is a reliable enough supply (and one that can be used TODAY) that I support its use until we bridge to some form of terrestrial fusion, and/or solar energy.
Let me ask you this: If we started now and built even just enough natural gas plants in the US to replace every erg of coal power that are currently used here, what would the effect on US carbon emissions be? Don't sweat the limits of the gas supply, it's a thought exercise. And this doesn't even attempt to consider all of the other crap that coal puts into the environment.
