Chinese consumption of coal and renewable energy

[happyslug]

21. Ask Wikipedia, where I obtain the list, I did include that cite

I suspect the reason Uranium was NOT on that list is we are talking about OIL equivalent. When it comes to Uranium you are running into two problems:

1. What is the equivalent of Uranium in terms of Oil? I kg of Uranium can produce as much electricity as 10,000 kg of oil or 14,000 kg of coal. There are 6-8 barrels per tonne, 1000 KG per ton. Thus 10,000 kg of oil equals 10 tonnes or about 60-80 barrels of oil. Thus a rough calculation would .01666 kg of uranium equals to one barrel of oil or 16 grams of Uranium equals one barrel of oil, or 1/2 ounce of Uranium equals one barrel of oil.

Barrels per tonne:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_(unit)

Grams to Ounces:
0.035274

Thus, 1 kg natural uranium - following a corresponding enrichment and used for power generation in light water reactors - corresponds to nearly 10,000 kg of mineral oil or 14,000 kg of coal and enables the generation of 45,000 kWh of electricity.

http://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/f/fuelcomparison.htm

2. Relevancy. i.e. who cares how much uranium it takes to provide the same power of oil, no one is making a Uranium powered car, they are making oil, natural gas and even coal operated vehicles (in terms of coal it is more coal gasification then direct use of coal, but such vehicles have been made and used). The chief reason for this is you can NOT get a nuclear chain reaction with less the about

To "use" uranium to propel a vehicle, the uranium is used to produce electrical power, which is sent through electrical wires either to vehicle for direct use (Trains, Streetcars, trolly buses and in some cases trucks) or used to charge the battery in an electrical powered vehicle. Such vehicles are becoming more and more popular but if you take them out of the equation, you are left with the fossil fuels for transportation purposes where oil dominates today, challenged by natural gas, bio-diesel and other similar liquid fuels NOT uranium.

Remember you can NOT have a Chain reaction if you do NOT have enough Critical mass and the critical mass for U-235 is 52 Kg or about 123 pounds (U-233 critical mass is 15 KG). Thus you have a minimum size for nuclear plants. Please note the 52 kg is for almost 100% U-235, if the U-235 is only enriched to 20 % that weighs over 400 kg or 1100 pounds or over half a US ton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass