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Thanks for the detailed info, this was the stuff I was looking for but couldn't find quickly.

>> is difficult to re-process

> That's not a problem. You just don't reprocess it.

There's not enough uranium in the world to last us more then a few decades if we leave 60-80 percent of it unreacted in spent fuel.

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That is an often repeated but incorrect thing. At the current rate of utilization, the proven reserves of uranium would last for one hundred years. What people miss is the fact that elevating a reserve to the status of “proven” (from the lower status of “probable”) costs money. Mining companies spend this money in order to get loans. Loan interest rates are better if the collateral is “proven” reserves. But the financing needs of these companies are limited by the business opportunity, so there is no incentive to “prove” more than 100 years worth of consumption. If the demand increases however, immediately you will see an increase of “proven” reserves. In the end we can extract unlimited amounts of uranium from seawater for only about 5x the current market price. It sounds like a lot, but it translates in less than one extra cent per kWh. The average retail price of 1kWh in the US is about 15 cents.

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