27,500 tons of uranium are used in the US yearly.
55 million pounds
Producing 19.7% of all electricity.
436 million tons of coal are used in the US yearly.
892 billion pounds
Producing 19% of all electricity.
Coal & nuclear both produce about the same amount of power in the US today, but what goes into getting that far are totally different.
Based on efficiency.
63,000 coal miners currently work in the US.
265 uranium miners work in the US.
Next up, pollution.
Coal produces 4,172 pounds of CO2 per ton burned.
Nuclear itself produces no carbon emissions, minus small emissions for mining and obvious things like transportation for labor.
The real issue with nuclear is believed to be waste, but that’s also not a huge issue.
2,000 tons of nuclear waste are produced every year.
83,000 pounds produced in the last 50 years.
That sounds like a lot, but according to the department of energy, it only requires 10 yards buried to get rid of it.
It’s also important to know new reactors can recycle almost 100% of nuclear waste and use it for fuel. Some scientist are also working on ways to use it to help with medical research.
Nuclear is clearly better, but globally, the numbers aren’t as good as the US.
Nuclear is 10% of where all electricity comes from globally.
Coal is 38%.
Coal is nearly 4x as much and while the US saw a decline due to natural gas in the 2010s, most of the world didn’t see that.
Solar, wind, tidal and geothermal are also globally only 7% combined.
Unless there’s a serious investment in clean coal, the fuel is very inefficient and the cost is capped.
The earth has 40 trillion tons its crust, we could increase nuclear usage 1000% and the current mines would last another 80 years and nuclear is clearly something that is working.
For the idea of renewables, the country with the most success in clean energy by far is France, which is 70% nuclear.
The government is trying to lower that to 50% by 2035, but already attempts to do that have risen prices and cost them money they were making exporting the energy to other countries.
The US consumes about 20-25% of global nuclear power and even though its not the number one producer as a percent to energy, it has the most infrastructure to grow.
Realistically, all electricity could go nuclear and the country could make billions every year selling it to Canada, Mexico & South America.
Just a thought.