I know it’s a joke, but just wanted to say that Uranium used for fuel is not something you can actually use for weaponry directly. It requires enrichment to increase the concentration of U-235 to weapons-grade levels.
Mali has a significant mine that France essentially controls. In America, we have mines but import a lot too.
We actually currently buy about 25% of our uranium supply from Russia, though Congress just passed a ban that’ll go in effect in 90 days. It allows for waivers if there are supply issues, though, so it might end up being more than 90 days. (I have no idea how quickly a country can find a new uranium supplier but it sounds complicated.)
The idea is stupid as it sounds but on paper it’s possible. A single kg of uranium-235 has approx 24gwh per kg. No reactor that small is going to get close to 100% efficiency, but in theory with 50kg uranium you could run a facility drawing 1mwh 24 hours a day, every day for a year if you were getting 50% efficiency. The largest data center in the US (as of 2022) runs at 3.4mw but there are plans to build one for 72mw. I don’t know who is going to sell a data center 50kg of uranium year but nobody is going to give them 3.6 metric tonnes.
So for smaller data centers, this might seem like a decent idea to control your own power grid and maybe make a bit of extra money on the side selling that excess capacity to local communities, but for the largest ones it quickly become absurd unless we develop viable Throrium reactors and make them commercially viable by the time time they want to do this for real.
Just one note, nuclear power plants run at around 35% efficiency. This is because they are basically steam generators and tend to not push as hard for safety. I think they can get up to 40-45% with combined cycles and such, but then we are in the “very large” territory
Where do you buy fuel grade uranium in order to run your own reactor?
I’m asking for a friend.
I know it’s a joke, but just wanted to say that Uranium used for fuel is not something you can actually use for weaponry directly. It requires enrichment to increase the concentration of U-235 to weapons-grade levels.
I think a lot of it is mined in Africa.
Mali has a significant mine that France essentially controls. In America, we have mines but import a lot too.
We actually currently buy about 25% of our uranium supply from Russia, though Congress just passed a ban that’ll go in effect in 90 days. It allows for waivers if there are supply issues, though, so it might end up being more than 90 days. (I have no idea how quickly a country can find a new uranium supplier but it sounds complicated.)
Well if you’re in the US you can get it from New Mexico and Wyoming. We’ve even got a few mines here in Texas.
So in the US it’s a matter of getting licensed by the NRC and contacting one of the many processing facilities.
The idea is stupid as it sounds but on paper it’s possible. A single kg of uranium-235 has approx 24gwh per kg. No reactor that small is going to get close to 100% efficiency, but in theory with 50kg uranium you could run a facility drawing 1mwh 24 hours a day, every day for a year if you were getting 50% efficiency. The largest data center in the US (as of 2022) runs at 3.4mw but there are plans to build one for 72mw. I don’t know who is going to sell a data center 50kg of uranium year but nobody is going to give them 3.6 metric tonnes.
So for smaller data centers, this might seem like a decent idea to control your own power grid and maybe make a bit of extra money on the side selling that excess capacity to local communities, but for the largest ones it quickly become absurd unless we develop viable Throrium reactors and make them commercially viable by the time time they want to do this for real.
Large scale data centers, like the ones that end up in the news for FAANG are ~100 megawatt footprints.
I have no idea where you’re getting 3.4 megawatts as the largest data center in the US, but that is wildly undersized.
Just one note, nuclear power plants run at around 35% efficiency. This is because they are basically steam generators and tend to not push as hard for safety. I think they can get up to 40-45% with combined cycles and such, but then we are in the “very large” territory
I heard my local data center had a few fall off the truck last week out by lakeview.
You have to talk to a Westinghouse sells rep. If you want uranium outside of a fuel rod most chemical supplier sell it.
No shopping cart? Was this site built on the 90s?
Chemdirect has a shopping cart?