The nuke lobby remains slick and desperate to con everyone as ever.
>the fuel rods are the most expensive materials on the planet. (Billions/ounce)
No, no, no. Here is a picture of a typical nuclear fuel assembly....
$millions/oz. rather than "Billions"? Sun power is still way cheaper, safer, and cleaner. Plus one can find actual investors. No need for those massively subsidized roads, insurance programs, bombing target, or bomb making worries. I forget, has any nuke plant ever turned a profit yet? I don't think so,.. maybe one,.. but, oh boy how we've blown stuff up with that stuff, amiright!
>$millions/oz. rather than "Billions"
Goodness grief, where do you guys get your BS from?
As I posted, that nuclear fuel assembly costs about $1M. It has about 450 kgs of U in it. (That's 16000 ounces for you.)
Uranium ore costs less than $100 per pound before being processed into uranium oxide fuel pellets for use in that fuel assembly.
>Sun power is still way cheaper,
Why don't you have solar panels on your roof then? At least I have a solar-powered calculator, LOL.
>bomb making worries
Um, the uranium used in power plant reactors is less than 5% U-235. Bombs are >90%. You know not what you worry about.
>bombing target
You would be hard pressed to find a structure more bomb-hardened than a containment dome. More nonsense.
>as any nuke plant ever turned a profit yet?
There are 93 power reactors in the US. The large majority are profitable.
Each form of power production has its issues. We all know about fossil fuels. Wind and solar are unreliable and intermittent, and therefore, you can't rely upon them solely. The other base-load plants have to be built anyway (so why even build the wind and solar plants, one might ask). You won't get much renewable power on windless snow-covered nights, will you?
I am for a mix. My favorite power source is large hydro. It's cheapest, reliable, and can adjust power output easily on demand, unlike other forms including coal, nuclear and renewables. Plus, you get a big lake. However, hydro is historically the most dangerous way to produce power.
Nukes and fossil are great too. The US has hundreds of years of coal supply.
Right now in the US, our energy markets are in disarray, and renewable mandates and subsidies are responsible for a lot of the mess...
Learn more about the ongoing federal support to uneconomic renewable energy sources given through wind and solar tax credits.
www.instituteforenergyresearch.org