It seems there are a few ways and materials that can be used for producing fission nuclear energy ( as opposed to fusion - for which a controversial experimental iter fusion reactor is being built in france - ).

One of the materials (most?) used till now apparently being Uranium ( very radioactive ) and Thorium ( much less radioactive ).

Note : one may ask why such focus on Uranium in the last 65 years, despite havon control on Thorium civil energy production since the 50 ies. ( see more on Thorium below )
One thesis potentially being that the process using uranium supports the creation of "weapons grade plutonium", needed for certain weapons, including fissile nuclear weapons ? Certain countries building up their stocks of such very specific kind of plutonium before the depletion of Uranium ? 

Regarding Uranium : 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_depletion#Uranium_production

"The European Commission said in 2001 that at the current level of uranium consumption, known uranium resources would last 42 years. When added to military and secondary sources, the resources could be stretched to 72 years. Yet this rate of usage assumes that nuclear power continues to provide only a fraction of the world’s energy supply. If electric capacity were increased six-fold, then the 72-year supply would last just 12 years.[8] "

///

There seems to be one molten salt energy production plant in India, and more thorium nuclear energy projects to come in China ?


"the Chinese will soon lead on this thorium technology as well as molten-salts. "





"Thorium
There is three times as much thorium as uranium in the Earth's crust. It produces 250 times more energy than uranium. Thorium waste loses its radioactivity in hundreds of years rather than tens of thousands."


"thorium retrieval much less expensive and less environmentally damaging per unit of energy extracted."

"historically, these reactors were designed to “breed” plutonium, ostensibly so that the reactors would actually produce more fuel than they consume. In fact this focus on the use of highly enriched uranium as a fuel to make plutonium has resulted in a steady supply of weapons grade plutonium from which nearly all “modern” nuclear weapons are made. Thorium like uranium can be mixed with plutonium to make reactor fuel, but thorium has two major advantages over uranium:

  1. Thorium can be used to “burn” up existing stocks of weapons grade plutonium, and;
  2. Thorium reactors can be designed so that they do not produce weapons grade fissile material.

Thorium can be blended with weapons-grade plutonium to make fuel for nuclear reactors that convert the plutonium to a grade not suitable for the manufacture of fission weapons."


On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 8:54 PM, Mark Janssen <dreamingforward@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 5:47 AM, Michel Bauwens <michel@p2pfoundation.net> wrote:
calculations of solar energy are an important read


Question:  If it took 300 years to burn 1 billion years of fossil fuel, how many years will it take to burn the 15 billion years of stored nuclear energy?

marcos

_______________________________________________
P2P Foundation - Mailing list
http://www.p2pfoundation.net
https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation