Skip to main content

Another Take on Stewart Brand

By Eric McErlain
Visit Luck is Probability Taken Personally.
Labels:

Comments

Joseph said…
I noticed a commenter on that article claimed that uranium is a net energy sink when it is mined at concentrations under 0.01%, presumably because lower concentrations must mean rapidly-increasing energy costs.

I thought of a counterexample to that. Uranium is 4 parts per million of the Earth's crust. Gold can be extracted from a similar concentration of gold ore at a cost of roughly $20 per gram. Even if we assume that all of that $20 goes to pay for energy, 1 gram of uranium can produce far more than $20 worth of energy if breeder reactors are used.
March 7, 2007 at 1:23 AM
Post a Comment