PLENTIFUL ENERGY

thousand tonnes in one large increment. [11] Concentrations like this were totally
unexpected.
The immaturity of uranium exploration is shown by discoveries of this kind, and
it is by no means certain that all possible deposit types have even been identified.
Any estimate of world uranium potential made only thirty years ago would have
missed the entire deposit class of unconformity deposits that have driven production
since then, simply because geologists did not know this class existed.
There is no persuasive evidence that at the current levels of nuclear power
worldwide there is any danger of running out of uranium for centuries, even if the
present light water reactor technology continues to be used. The known ore amount
is large on this scale and the prospects for further economic discoveries are very
favorable. On this basis alone, the persistent misrepresentation of the abundance of
uranium resources, with the assertion that the world is in danger of actually running
out, is demonstrable nonsense. Promotion of the view that limited supplies of
natural uranium are the Achilles heel of nuclear power as society contemplates a
larger contribution from nuclear power is disingenuous at best. Very small amounts
of uranium fuel provide very large amounts of energy.
Only when nuclear is called upon to substitute wholesale for declining fossil
resources will proper, efficient use of the uranium resource come strongly into play.
As we shall see, the combination of resource usage and appropriate handling of
nuclear waste will make the breeder reactor, of the right form, mandatory for
answering the world‘s energy needs.
4.6 The Importance of China in All Such Discussions
China is implementing an energy program which, along with large numbers of
coal plants, will bring online fifty to sixty new nuclear power plants by 2020. The
Chinese economy has been growing at an average rate of 8% per year, with
electricity demand growing twice that fast. The Ministry of Electric Power has
estimated that 15-20% of China's present energy demand cannot be met, and that a
hundred million Chinese have no access to electricity. To keep up with its rate of
economic growth, China estimates that it will have to double its electricitygenerating
capacity every decade. And at 385 GWe of current online capacity,
China even now has an electric grid system second only to that of the United States,
and is now the world‘s largest total energy consumer.
Three quarters of China‘s electricity is currently coal-fired, but continued
expansion of coal-fired capacity to meet the growing demand is not an option. Forty
percent of China's railroad capacity is already dedicated to hauling more than one
billion tons of coal per year.
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