Annual uranium

World reactor-related requirements are expected to increase from 57,182 t U in 1992 to about 75,673 t U by the year 2010. Some utiUties are expected to continue to meet their requirements by purchasing or drawing on excess inventory. Annual uranium production should remain below actual requirements until some target level of stocks is reached (27). 

World annual uranium requirements in 1993 were estimated at about 58,382 t natural uranium equivalent. Reactor-related requirements are expected to rise about 1015 t/yr on the average, reaching 75,700 t U total requirements in the year 2010. The cumulative aggregate world uranium requirements for the period 1993—2010 are estimated to be about 1.185 X 10 t U metal (29). 

In commercial transactions uranium concentrates are measured in short tons (2000 lb) of UjOg. In this unit, the annual uranium consumption of this reactor would be... 

Reactor Type Lifetime Uranium (t) Annual Uranium (t) Annual Enrichment SWU For Uranium at 100 /kg M / year (c/kWh) For Uranium at 2500 /kg M / year (c/kWh)... 

A reactor generates 3,000 Mw(t) using uranium-235 fuel. Calculate the approximate uranium-235 consumption rate, g/yr. If the reactor uses 2Z enriched fuel, determine the total annual uranium requirements, metric ton/yr. 

Foreign. The OECD/NEA and IAEA have issued annual reports on world uranium resources, production, and demand since the mid-1960s (2—6). NEA/IAEA data for reasonably assured and estimated additional resources at costs of 80 and 130/kg uranium are given in Table 2 (21). These estimates incorporate data from both former world outside centrally planned economies (WOCA) and non-WOCA nations. A summary of other known uranium resources with and without cost range estimates is provided in Table 3 (22). These resources total about 1.4 x 10 t and include estimates that are not strictly consistent with standard NEA/IAEA definitions. 

The amount of HEU that becomes avadable for civdian use through the 1990s and into the twenty-first century depends on the number of warheads removed from nuclear arsenals and the amount of HEU in the weapons complex that is already outside of the warheads, ie, materials stockpdes and spent naval reactor fuels. An illustrative example of the potential amounts of weapons-grade materials released from dismanded nuclear weapons is presented in Table 7 (36). Using the data in Table 7, a reduction in the number of warheads in nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia to 5000 warheads for each country results in a surplus of 1140 t of HEU. This inventory of HEU is equivalent to 205,200 t of natural uranium metal, or approximately 3.5 times the 1993 annual demand for natural uranium equivalent. 

The geologic aspects of waste disposal (24—26), proceedings of an annual conference on high level waste management (27), and one from an annual conference on all types of radioactive waste (28) are available. An alternative to burial is to store the spent fuel against a long-term future energy demand. Uranium and plutonium contained in the fuel would be readily extracted as needed. 

The uses of Th are at present limited and only a few hundred tonnes are produced annually, about half of this still being devoted to the production of gas mantles (p. 1228). In view of its availability as a by-product of lanthanide and uranium production, output could be increased easily if it were to be used on a large scale as a nuclear fuel (see below). 

Figure 5. The in 0.2pm and 3 kD filtered water and colloids phase (3kD - 0.2pm) and particles (>0.2 pm) as well as material from sediment traps plotted versus conductivity in the low salinity zone (0-3) of the Kalix River estuary. The stippled area marks the reported annual range in at the Kalix river mouth, which show a substantial variation compared to the uranium concentration. Data from Andersson et al. (2001). Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science.

Total annual intake, in Bq/kg BW, from all sources by a 60-kg person exceeds 66 of lead-210, 166 of polonium-210, 333 of radium-226, 670 of thorium-230, 830 of thorium-228, or 1330 of uranium-238. 

Kowalik, T. Cantwell, T. Crud problems in solvent extraction and strip circuits of Conquista uranium. Paper at AIME Annual Meeting, New Orleans, February 1979. 

Kyser, T.K., Chipley, D., Vuletich, A., Alexandre, P. 2008. Variations in 238U/235U ratios in natural uranium ore minerals from sedimentary basins Abstracts of the 18th annual V. M. Goldschmidt conference. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 72(12), A508. 

EPA (1984) estimated that about 0.2 Ci of thorium-230 is annually emitted into the air from uranium mill facilities, coal-fired utilities and industrial boilers, phosphate rock processing and wet- process fertilizer production facilities, and other mineral extraction and processing facilities. About 0.084 Ci of thorium-234 from uranium fuel cycle facilities and 0.0003 Ci of thorium-232 from underground uranium mines are emitted into the atmosphere annually (EPA 1984). 

Young WN, Tebrock HA. 1958. The treatment of exposure to thorium and uranium with a chelating agent and supportive measures. Ind Med Surg (Annual Meeting) 27 229-232. 

---