@westofEden Proven reserves of oil are enough to last for at least 2 centuries at the current rate of consumption. BUT... there is always a BUT... the cost to obtain and process them is so energy onerous that they barely provide a positive energy balance today. Right now there is a ongoing scarcity of fuel oils for the very simple reason that oil refineries are refining heavy oils whsoe content of tar and asphalt is so high that the refineries quickly meet the amount of heavy distitllate they can sell/store/burn -thus they are refining less and less oil and getting less and less fuel oil from it.
Also, as oyu ignroed, uranium roes require a massive amount of fossil fuels to dig, transport, process, transport again, process again, all the way from the ground to long term storage. And that is a process that can't just be electrified, same as long haul freight. And.We.are.Running.Out.Of.Fuel.Oil. Or more exactly, fuel oil is bound to become so expensive that demand would collapse and the economy with it.
We've got to centuries worth of oil... at 200 $ barrel, or maybe 300 $ barrel, all the way to the point where we use more energy to extract it than actually get from burning it.
And uranium ores are no different. You can't get nuclear energy without fossil fuels. Actually, probably we also can't get renewable electricity without fossil fuels neither... because long haul freight already is using electricity where possible (railways) and fossil fuels everywhere else. The whole transportation paradigm of our society is built on easily transportable energy-dense power sources. Batteries are horrendously heavy for their energy storage. Battery airplanes are nonsense. Battery ships are ruinous. Battery semitrucks are bullshit. Battereis barely make sense for light-ish vehicles with short-ish ranges. Cars? Yes, probably. Vans? Might do. Semitrucks? Bullshit. Ships? No please no oh god no. Airplanes...? Seriously, do you know how much would weight the batteries storing the same energy as an ailiner's fuel tank?
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@westofEden Proven reserves of oil are enough to last for at least 2 centuries at the current rate of consumption. BUT... there is always a BUT... the cost to obtain and process them is so energy onerous that they barely provide a positive energy balance today. Right now there is a ongoing scarcity of fuel oils for the very simple reason that oil refineries are refining heavy oils whsoe content of tar and asphalt is so high that the refineries quickly meet the amount of heavy distitllate they can sell/store/burn -thus they are refining less and less oil and getting less and less fuel oil from it.
Also, as oyu ignroed, uranium roes require a massive amount of fossil fuels to dig, transport, process, transport again, process again, all the way from the ground to long term storage. And that is a process that can't just be electrified, same as long haul freight. And.We.are.Running.Out.Of.Fuel.Oil. Or more exactly, fuel oil is bound to become so expensive that demand would collapse and the economy with it.
We've got to centuries worth of oil... at 200 $ barrel, or maybe 300 $ barrel, all the way to the point where we use more energy to extract it than actually get from burning it.
And uranium ores are no different. You can't get nuclear energy without fossil fuels. Actually, probably we also can't get renewable electricity without fossil fuels neither... because long haul freight already is using electricity where possible (railways) and fossil fuels everywhere else. The whole transportation paradigm of our society is built on easily transportable energy-dense power sources. Batteries are horrendously heavy for their energy storage. Battery airplanes are nonsense. Battery ships are ruinous. Battery semitrucks are bullshit. Battereis barely make sense for light-ish vehicles with short-ish ranges. Cars? Yes, probably. Vans? Might do. Semitrucks? Bullshit. Ships? No please no oh god no. Airplanes...? Seriously, do you know how much would weight the batteries storing the same energy as an ailiner's fuel tank?