This from the Oil Drum website.

“During 2009, nuclear power plants, with a capacity of 370 GWe, will produce roughly 14% of the world-wide electric energy. About 65,000 tons of natural uranium equivalent are required to operate these reactors. For the last 15 years, only 2/3 of this fuel has on average been provided by uranium mines, whereas 1/3 has come from secondary resources. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the secondary uranium resources will be essentially exhausted during the next 5-10 years. In this paper, the situation concerning the secondary resources at the beginning of the year 2009 is presented. The data used are from the IAEA/NEA 2007 Red Book, “Uranium Resources, Production and Demand,” and from the World Nuclear Association (WNA).

Our analysis shows that, at the beginning of 2009, the remaining world-wide civilian uranium stocks amount to roughly 50,000 tons. With the almost inevitable yearly draw-down of 10,000 tons, these civilian stocks will be essentially exhausted within the next 5 years. This coincides roughly with the year 2013, when the annual delivery of 10,000 tons of natural uranium equivalent from Russian military stocks to the USA will end. As the majority of the remaining civilian stocks, about 30,000 tons, are believed to be under the control of the US government and American companies, it seems rather unlikely that the USA will share their own strategic uranium reserves with other large nuclear energy users. In summary, all data indicate that a uranium supply shortage in many OECD countries can only be avoided, if the remaining military uranium stocks from Russia and the USA, estimated to be roughly 500,000 tons, are made available to the other countries.”

Which is obviously problematic if you’re counting on nukes to be a dependable “transition” power source while we figure out the best sustainable energy sources.

About the only relatively clean energy source that is in abundance here in the US or nearby in Canada is natural gas.

From a NYT article June 18.

“Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has called attention in recent weeks to the higher U.S. supply estimates driven by shale gas plays. He calls increased estimates a “game changer” and very good news.

Romm said the new report underscores that the 2020 emissions reduction targets in the Waxman-Markey bill are certainly achievable and may even be too weak. That is because with ample supply, gas will remain at a moderate price — around $5 to $6 per million British thermal units — and will keep compliance costs down, he said.

He noted that a key factor behind the cost of capping carbon is the cost to replace existing coal plants. With cheaper natural gas, that can more easily be done with idle natural gas plants built during a overbuild in the 1990s that are connected to the grid system, but the fuel has been too costly to use until now, said Romm, a former DOE official.

“I think this is a big deal,” Romm said of the higher estimates. Additional gas will also encourage more utilities to build wind generation, as natural gas is currently the best backup power for the intermittent energy, he said.”

And billionaire oilman Boone Pickens has long advocated using natural gas as a transition energy source while the nation builds up sufficient sustainable energy supplies.  From the same NYT article.

“Famed Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is spending aggressively to promote his plan to transition vehicles such as heavy-duty trucks and city fleets to natural gas in order to curb demands for oil imports. Pickens also supports a major build-out of wind for electricity, which would help free up natural gas for vehicles.

He quickly seized on the new report.

“Obviously, this underscores what Boone has spoken about for well over a year and gives further credibility to a key aspect of the Pickens plan, and that is using natural gas as a transportation fuel alternative to foreign oil, diesel and gasoline,” said Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Pickens.

“This should quiet any skeptic who is concerned about using our abundant supplies of natural gas as an important transitional fuel,” he added.”

Tags: Natural Gas Supplies, Nuclear Fuel Supplies, T. Boone Pickens

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Natural Gas, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.