Nuclear energy comparison?

Question

I remember seeing once a comparison of different energy sources. The company showed us how many tonnes of coal, oil, and uranium it would take to achieve the same amount of energy. Does anyone know where I could find something like this? I appreciate it!

Answer 1

About 3000 tonnes of coal is equivalent to 1 kg of Uranium.

So thats 3,000,000 kg giving the same energy as 1 kg of Uranium.

http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/modules/E...

Two similar power stations; one would use 9000 tonnes of coal a day the other just 3 kg of Uranium.

Answer 2

One such table can be found here:

http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents...

An article that is clearer and discusses some of the same energy densities can be found here:

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/economy...

Read carefully.  These kind of values do not always use the same basis and so are difficult to compare unless you know precisely what they mean.

Answer 3

Here's a site on Wikipedia that shows all sorts of energy sources in tabular form. Note that fission of Uranium, even at the 50% real-world efficiency listed would be 45million megajoules of energy compared to the 14-19 in the same amount of coal, or the 30 in the same amount of ethanol.

This is why I'm a big proponent of nuclear power - we just need to find a safe way to get the waste into space. Then we'd be all set.

Answer 4

I get around, the only thing in the 5th millienium that they know about the the 3rd, IS PLASTIC AND NUCLEAR WASTE.

Is anyone else awake?