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by Aardwolf
4355 days ago
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If it's 3-4 times bigger than the Uranium, and Uranium will last us 10 more years - Thorium would last us 30-40 years. What to do after that? If there ever appears a new intelligent civilization millions of years after humanity, they'll be very disappointed to be on an Earth without any Uranium or Thorium! |
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Uranium will simply not run out. The "10 years" figure stems entirely from misunderstanding what the word "reserve" means in mining.
Also, there is 3-4 times more natural thorium than natural uranium. Of natural uranium only 0.7% is U-235, which is useful in a traditional reactor. Breeders can use all of it. Thorium reactors are all breeders. Assuming only resources extractable at current market prices, using uranium breeders the reserves would last ~1400 years and the thorium reserves would last ~5k years.