[frankthetank]

That wasn't the point of this post, but whatever.

The US has burned Thorium in a reactor in the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_St._V ... ng_Station

[SFDukie]

Shippingport used thorium as well, and was a LWR.

[Tyler_JC]

How expensive would it be to extract the uranium from the coal?

5.2 tons out of 4 million tons is only 1.3 parts per million of uranium.

A low grade uranium ore has 100 parts per million of uranium.

I haven't seen any studies on this, but it doesn't sound like extracting uranium from coal would be profitable.

Uranium is actually quite abundant. The average rock has around 4 parts per million of uranium so it would be easier to get uranium from the parking lot of a coal plant than the coal itself.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'H')ow expensive would it be to extract the uranium from the coal?

5.2 tons out of 4 million tons is only 1.3 parts per million of uranium.

A low grade uranium ore has 100 parts per million of uranium.

I haven't seen any studies on this, but it doesn't sound like extracting uranium from coal would be profitable.

Uranium is actually quite abundant. The average rock has around 4 parts per million of uranium so it would be easier to get uranium from the parking lot of a coal plant than the coal itself.

[Blacksmith]

Where is Mr Potatoe Head when you need him?

[Gerben]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'T')he trick os to get it from the ash left over in all those huge sludge ponds around the world, in those locations the concentration is raised from 1.3 to around 10 ppm, which is still very low. On the other hand the ash is already on the surface, it has been 'mined' and powdered already which should help a little in extraction cost.

[Tanada]

Russia is not only moving ahead with fast reactor tech, they have made a deal selling it to China as well.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/china- ... utron.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')onstruction is under way on Beloyarsk-4 which is the first BN-800 from OKBM, a new, more powerful (880 MWe) FBR, which is actually the same overall size as BN-600. It has improved features including fuel flexibility - U+Pu nitride, MOX, or metal, and with breeding ratio up to 1.3. However, during the plutonium disposition campaign it will be operated with a breeding ratio of less than one. It has much enhanced safety and improved economy - operating cost is expected to be only 15% more than VVER. It is capable of burning up to 2 tonnes of plutonium per year from dismantled weapons and will test the recycling of minor actinides in the fuel.