Conventional nuclear power

Currently, all of the world's nuclear power plants(...)( any exceptions are experimental and not scaleable yet ) run on conventional nuclear power(...)( for lack of a better term ) which is nuclear fission that depends heavily on uranium-235.

Scarcity of uranium-235

Major problem

Uranium occurs naturally as a mix of two isotopes: uranium-235 (0.7%) and uranium-238 (99.3%).

This is the main reason why nuclear power provides only a small fraction of the world's energy. Uranium-235 is a scarce mineral - far more scarce than fossil fuels.

If all the world's energy were to come from nuclear, we'd run out of uranium-235 in about 4 years. (...)( Hence, conventional nuclear power should really only be used for baseload electricity, which is a small part of global energy demand, instead of the whole thing. )

see mathssee maths

uranium.reserves

8.070 million tonnes uranium_natural

Global uranium mineral reserves, measured in energy units

The calculator understands "tonnes uranium_natural" as an energy unit. It's based on the fact that natural uranium is just 0.7% uranium-235 (the isotope we extract energy from). The rest is uranium-238, which isn't useful for energy unless we use breeder reactors.

Citation:
Uranium 2020: Resources, Production and Demand ('Red Book')
"The total recoverable identified resources to $260/kg U is 8.070 million tonnes U."

nuclear_power_plant.efficiency

33%

Electrical output divided by the heat energy of the nuclear reactor

Nuclear power plants convert heat (from uranium-235, currently) into electricity. The process is approximately 33% efficient.

Citation: Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report) - Page 73 - Glossary - Nuclear

energy.tfc

9937.70 Mtoe/year

Global energy usage - total final consumption (TFC)

Includes: fuel (80.7%) + electricity (19.3%) AFTER it is generated.

Does not include the fuel used in generating electricity. See [energy.tes] for that.

Citation: "Key World Energy Statistics 2020" IEA
- Page 47 - Simplified energy balance table - World energy balance, 2018

years energy.tfc (calculation loading) We'd run out even faster if all nations were developed.

Possible solutions:

Breeder reactors, to make use of uranium-238, which is over 100 times more abundant.
Extracting uranium from seawater^{[unlikely to be viable]}

Nuclear waste

Long-term problem

When most of the uranium-235 is used up in the reactor, the remaining matter becomes "spent fuel" and must be disposed of. This nuclear waste is still radioactive enough to cause harm to anyone exposed to it without protective equipment. It remains this way for millions of years.

Possible solutions:

Breeder reactors, which would continue to extract energy from the spent fuel until there's almost nothing left.

Risk of meltdowns

Generally manageable

This section has not been filled in yet.

Weapons proliferation

Under control

This section has not been filled in yet.