Professional Engineer written by Dwight , March 30, 2010
Using current resource estimates to project exhaustion times is ridiculous. No one bothers to look for things like Uranium that are currently plentiful. You can only calculate an exhaustion time when you are looking for it and can't find it, at which time the rising price will motivate a search for alternatives. Likewise every location of a fossil fueled generating station is a good candidate for a nuclear station. Nuclear takes a tiny fraction of the surface area that solar does per watt.
The key to selecting the power source is delivered cost. Currently available solar power is 5 to 10 times the cost of a new nuclear station. Those nations that are using tax incentives to produce large implementations of solar energy are staggering under the huge tax and power bills. Major breakthroughs in economics are needed before a large scale roll out. Nuclear can provide the bridge, and is very economical if radiation risks are treated objectively.
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The key to selecting the power source is delivered cost. Currently available solar power is 5 to 10 times the cost of a new nuclear station. Those nations that are using tax incentives to produce large implementations of solar energy are staggering under the huge tax and power bills. Major breakthroughs in economics are needed before a large scale roll out. Nuclear can provide the bridge, and is very economical if radiation risks are treated objectively.