re nuclear waste in article rins ryukoku ac jp will rins ryukoku ac jp william reiken writes the real reason why accelerator breeders or incinerators are not being built is that there isn t any reason to do so natural uranium is still too cheap and geological disposal of actinides looks technically reasonable november december page science and technology in japan seawater uranium recovery experiment the ground uranium reserves are estimated at about million tons and it is anticipated that the demand and supply balance will collapse by the end of the th century in japan a resources poor country technological development are now under way to economically collect uranium dissolved in seawater the total quanity of uranium dissolved in seawater is estimated to be about billion tons a huge amount when compared with ground uranium reserves i hate to pour cold water on this but currently seawater extracted uranium even using the new improved fiber absorbers from japan is about times more expensive than uranium on the spot market uranium is very cheap right now around lb right now there are mines closing because they can t compete with places like cigar lake in canada where the ore is so rich they present safety hazards to the mines who work in shielded vehicles plenty of other sources for example uranium from phosphate processing would come on line before uranium reached lb demand and supply balance will collapse is nonsense supply and demand always balance what changes is the price is uranium going to increase in price by a factor of by the end of the century not bloody likely new nuclear reactors are not being built at a sufficient rate uranium from seawater is interesting but it s a long term project or a project that the japanese might justify on grounds of self sufficiency paul f dietz dietz cs rochester edu
