how is it that nuclear energy is a renewable resource?

Question

if uranium needs to be mined from the earth, wont it run out some day? and if what will replace it? there has to be something or else they wouldnt call nuclear energy a renewable resource.

Answer 1

It is not a totally renewable resource. However breeder reactors with U238 as part of the core create more U235 and Plutonium than they use. After cooling and refining it comes back as more fuel.

Answer 2

Renewable resources are a fuzzy concept. Even if the end-products were converted back into fuel, which they can't without a loss of energy, there is always an increase in entropy.
Neuclear energy does not create air pollution, so it is much more 'green' than fossil fuel. Also, the end-products in many neuclear reactions can be used as fuel (as is the case with uranium producing plutonium). These reactors are known as breeder reactors.

Answer 3

You are absolutely correct, at some point the world will run out of uranium deposits. However, this all is in the definition of renewable energy. Fossil fuels are conisdered to be nonrenewable because they will only last us for a short time. This time is very very short when compared to the prospects of nuclear energy. One more thing to think about, if nuclear energy is nonrenewable, then so is solar energy because at some point the sun will die; but that won't happen for an INCREDIBLY long time (humanity crosses fingers).

Answer 4

It will run out someday but uranium 2-35
is recyclable, how ever the recycling process is expensive. Spent uranium 2-35 still has a half life of .14 million years.

Answer 5

It can be further enriched in a Breeder reactor making it somewhat usable again.

It also makes lots more plutonium which is kinda really dangerous-Toxic and useful for making atomic weapons.