The World Nuclear Association is reported as hoping that 11,000 new nuclear power stations will be built before the end of the century.
This is the old "fourfold expansion" song that Thatcher used to sing but with vocal backing. 438 nukes x 4 = 1752 nukes. They may find they a problem with uranium supplies. We have uranium reserves sufficient for 125-150 years at current consumption levels. A fourfold expansion would bring these reserves down to 31-37 years, which is about the same as the design life of a modern NPS.
Thatcher's fourfold expansion of NPS would therefore be the last generation of this design. It would provide the world with low-CO2 electricity at 2000 levels of consumption for approximately 20 years . Other estimates ( http://www.stormsmith.nl/ ) are that if we used up all the known high grade reserves of uranium, we could satisfy the world's total electricity needs for 3-6 years.
WNA has projected 6 times as many. What are they going to use as fuel? Cat poo?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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