In the US right now, there is a lot of talk about a so-called “nuclear revival.” But it remains to be seen whether we’ll see a meaningful uptick in actual power generation, from either new reactors, or old reactors getting a restart. Meanwhile, in China, nuclear construction is full steam ahead. In the last decade, China has built 37 nuclear reactors, and several more are coming down the pipe.e. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. China has added 37 nuclear reactors according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The US has added two.
Nuclear is the cheapest energy source know to man:
With a complete combustion or fission, approx.
8 kWh of heat can be generated from 1 kg of coal, approx.
12 kWh from 1 kg of oil and around
24,000,000 kWh from 1 kg of uranium-235.
Related to one kilogram, uranium-235 contains two to three million times the energy equivalent of oil or coal.
The illustration shows how much coal, oil or natural uranium is required for a certain quantity of electricity. Thus, 1 kg natural uranium – following a corresponding enrichment and used for power generation in light water reactors – corresponds to nearly 10,000 kg of oil or 14,000 kg of coal and enables the generation of 45,000 kWh of electricity.
The cost of 1 enriched uranium pellet (UO2) Uranium dioxide is $40 and weighs 10 grams. The energy generated by the fission of a single uranium pellet is equivalent to: 1 ton of coal or; 120 gallons of crude oil or; 17,000 ft 3 of natural gas; With about 17 million British Thermal Units (BTU) worth of energy in a uranium pellet,
