Re: The reality of the situation [was: Energy shortage]

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 04:29:33 MDT

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    On Wed, 27 Aug 2003, Samantha Atkins wrote:

    > How much electrical, motive and so on power does this much fissionable
    > material translate to, roughly, given current reactor and space engine
    > designs whether those designs are in production at this time or not? I have
    > a hard time sinking my teeth into the peaceful possibilities of such tonnage.

    I've been trying to work that out Samantha -- the best number I've been able
    to come up with thus far is that 1 ton of U-235 (which varies from a few
    percent in natural uranium, to perhaps 60-70% in highly enriched uranium,
    e.g. weapons grade) translates into about 1 Giga-watt-year in current reactors.

    I do *not* know how accurate that figure might be. But given figures I've
    seen regarding natural energy reserves of uranium, I suspect they exceed
    those that would be provided by coal (and would certainly exceed oil
    and natural gas).

    R.



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