Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in nuclear fuel reprocessing technology that could effectively end any uranium supply concerns, state media reported on Monday.
The technology developed by state-run China National Nuclear Corp enables the country to re-use irradiated nuclear fuel, China Central Television said.
"China's proven uranium sources will last only 50 to 70 years, but this now changes to 3,000 years," said the report.
The development would be an important step forward in China's plans to increase the share of alternative power sources in its energy mix to reduce pollution and achieve energy security.
It has stepped up investment in nuclear power in an effort to slash carbon emissions and reduce the nation's heavy reliance on polluting coal, which accounts for 70 percent of its power needs.
China announces nuclear fuel break
China, now the world's second-largest economy after surpassing Japan in 2010, aims to get 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020.
China aims to increase nuclear power capacity to 70-80 gigawatts by 2020, accounting for about five percent of the country's total installed power capacity, state press reports have said.
The government said previously the target was 40 gigawatts.
China currently produces around 750 tonnes of uranium a year but annual demand could rise to 20,000 tonnes a year by 2020 as it boosts nuclear power output, the China Daily newspaper has said. - Sapa-AFP
In 2007, the leading type of power generation by utilities in Canada is hydroelectricity, with a share of 58.7%. Coal (16.6%), nuclear (15.5%), natural gas (6.6%) , fuel oil (1.2%), wind (0.5%) and wood (0.3%) follow.
Most if not all Ontario and Quebec have been using nuclear energy for long time, also Canada is one of the top uranium producer if I remember it right.
zoids 發表於 2011-1-4 01:59
I dunno about Quebec, but Ontario is definitely not entirely reliant on nuclear power. It is the largest form of power generation in the province (using Canada's very own CANDU reactors, no less), but it still amounts to less than 50% of Ontario's electricity generation. The province uses a large number of fossil fuel (eg. coal), natural gas, and hydroelectric power stations, as well as some alternative energy power stations as well.
Answering my own question: Process seem to be extremely costly, both in environmental cost and the actual processing cost itself. This won't come into play until we have depleted the sun all together or something... or we find some breakthrough to do it at a much lower all around cost. http://www.fpif.org/articles/nuclear_recycling_fails_the_test
Most if not all Ontario and Quebec have been using nuclear energy for long time, also Canada is on ...
zoids 發表於 2011-1-4 01:59
My question would be, how much does it take to recycle Uranium? If the cost to recycle is higher than extraction from ground, then the ability to recycle won't affect spot price until reserve depletes and only hard to extract locations are left, raising the extraction cost.
It's good news that we have plenty of power to tap into for thousands of years to come. Tho, I'd believe the price for Nuclear power will soon be capped by the cost of safe disposal of the nuclear waste instead of the cost of Uranium extraction and Nuclear plant construction. The power won't come for free infinitely as we like to think. Of course... until Nuclear Fusion comes along... maybe several generations down the road if WWIII haven't broken out before then...
Most if not all Ontario and Quebec have been using nuclear energy for long time, also Canada is on ...
zoids 發表於 2011-1-4 01:59
I was thinking the same thing, why is uranium prices going up if these countries can recycle uranium. For India cannot even build their own nuclear power plant, how can they master the technique to recycle uranium to generate power?
Most if not all Ontario and Quebec have been using nuclear energy for long time, also Canada is one of the top uranium producer if I remember it right.
The article looks flawless until you ask more about details and follow uranium news.
First, it's well known that China is building a lot of nuclear generators, and just signed a long term contract with Cameco, if this technology is ready to be used, they won't need any more uranium already as the article mentioned.
Same for Russia, if the reprocess technology is really commercially viable, why Russia just spent all these money to buy Uranium One and Mantra mine in Africa? They obviously is going all out to secure any uranium source.
Then you look at the uranium spot price, it just gone up 50% from $40 in last June to now $62 and still going up. Look at uranium companies like URRE, the stock price just jumped from $1 to $3.5 in a few months. Don't you think something is very fishy going on?
I think everyone is jumping on the uranium bandwagon, I think PRC is trying to make the uranium spot price lower by understating their demand to get their uranium as cheap as possible before uranium spot price back to record $130 like in 2007.
Last time it was a bubble, this time everyone is building nuclear plants... do you think this will another bubble too? I think it will eventually turn into another bubble, but not now.
I forgot someone mentioned UUU long time ago, thank to that guy, I realized the coming demand and made a bit profit from the recent global uranium renaissance.
發表於 2011-1-3 13:29
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