Nuclear power proposed as renewable energy

[8][9] Conventional, human manufactured, nuclear fission power stations largely use uranium, a common metal found in seawater, and in rocks all over the world,[10] as its primary source of fuel.

Uranium-235 "burnt" in conventional reactors, without fuel recycling, is a non-renewable resource, and if used at present rates would eventually be exhausted.

Breeder reactors would constantly replenish the available supply of nuclear fuel by converting fertile materials, such as uranium-238 and thorium, into fissile isotopes of plutonium or uranium-233, respectively.

In 1983, physicist Bernard Cohen claimed that fast breeder reactors, fueled exclusively by natural uranium extracted from seawater, could supply energy at least as long as the sun's expected remaining lifespan of five billion years.

[13][14] Advancements at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Alabama, as published in a 2012 issue of the American Chemical Society, towards the extraction of uranium from seawater have focused on increasing the biodegradability of the materials used reducing the projected cost of the metal if it was extracted from the sea on an industrial scale.

The researchers' improvements include using electrospun Shrimp shell Chitin mats that are more effective at absorbing uranium when compared to the prior record setting Japanese method of using plastic amidoxime nets.

[22] In 2014, with the advances made in the efficiency of seawater uranium extraction, a paper in the journal of Marine Science & Engineering suggests that with, light water reactors as its target, the process would be economically competitive if implemented on a large scale.

The retired French Phénix reactor also demonstrated a greater than one breeding ratio and operated for ~30 years, producing power when Our Common Future was published in 1987.

[27] An extraction rate of kilotons of U per year over centuries would not modify significantly the equilibrium concentration of uranium in the oceans (3.3 ppb).

Under these optimal conditions the consumption of natural uranium would be 7 tons per year and per gigawatt (GW) of produced electricity.e.g.

[26] The coupling of uranium extraction from the sea and its optimal utilisation in a molten salt fast reactor should allow nuclear energy to gain the label renewable.

Renewable energy alternatives graphic
A cutaway model of the 2nd most powerful presently operating fast breeder reactor in the world. The ( BN-600 ), at 600 MW of nameplate capacity is equivalent in power output to a natural gas CCGT . It dispatches 560 MW to the Middle Urals power grid . Construction of a second breeder reactor, the BN-800 reactor was completed in 2014.
Proportions of the isotopes, U-238 (blue) and U-235 (red) found in natural uranium , versus grades that are enriched . light water reactors and the natural uranium capable CANDU reactors, are primarily powered only by the U-235 component, failing to extract much energy from U-238. While by contrast uranium breeder reactors mostly use U-238/the primary constituent of natural uranium as their fuel. [ 15 ]