This graphic highlights the use of element scarcity relative to electronics and also reminds us that there's plenty of uranium and thorium in the ground-- but not infinite. There are 100s of years of uranium as is, BUT eventually, we'll have to recycle & extract from seawater 1/
In fact, a majority of the uranium we've mine is still around, only a bit has been "burned" aka fissioned in a reactor. With recycling of used nuclear fuel and certain reactor types (advanced reactors like fast breeder or molten salt reactors), we can be way more efficient 2/
Another smart uranium utilization path is through the extraction of uranium from seawater. While the concentrations of U in seawater are MUCH lower than in the ground, there is just so much of it that it would make uranium essentially renewable 3/
forbes.com/sites/jamescon…
Finally, there's thorium! We don't use much of it now because most of the world's reactors were designed with uranium in mind. But there's plenty of thorium and I expect we'll see more thorium reactors in the future. 4/
At the end of the day, it's good for all of us to be reminded of the scarcity of the elements we take for granted. No energy source is resource-free and we can't forget that. It's up to us to ensure we're utilizing our resources effectively and planning for the future. 5/5
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