Tuesday, July 19, 2011

175,000 tons of uranium isn't enough! (I can't quite figure out the numbers!)

India: 'Massive' uranium find in Andhra Pradesh

See url, article copied below . . . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14196372

19 July 2011 Last updated at 00:38 ET

Exploration work is underway in Tummalapalle

India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh may have one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, the country's chief nuclear officer says.Studies show Tummalapalle in Kadapa district has a reserve of 150,000 tonnes of the mineral, Atomic Energy Commission chief S Banerjee said.
India has estimated reserves of about 175,000 tonnes of uranium. 

Analysts say the new reserves would still not be sufficient to meet India's growing nuclear energy needs.

Mr Banerjee said that studies at Tummalapalle have shown that the area "had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicate that this figure could go up even threefold" and become one of the world's largest uranium reserves.
The uranium deposits in the area appeared to be spread over 35km (21 miles), he said, adding that exploration work was going on in the area.
Mr Banerjee said the new findings were a "major development", but India's own uranium reserves would still fall short of meeting its nuclear energy needs."The new findings would only augment the indigenous supply of uranium. There would still be a significant gap. We would still have to import," he was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.
India is planning to set up some 30 reactors over as many years and get a quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2050.

(Frish note: India has even more to catch up than China at this point, as their demographic transition has yet to occur.  They expect Beau Coup more people and need loads more energy.  Seems they are planning a fair bit of Nuclear, but their coal resources are some of the biggest in the world. 

That sure seems like a lot of TONS of uranium.  

Also, let's rip up 21 square miles of land to get Uranium, thereby messing up whatever ecology had been there, and polluting the entire planet with Uranium dust and 10,000 years of containment (oh, yeah, like THAT'S going to happen!))

Here's an Indian Population growth map

QUICK FACTS ON INDIA DEMOGRAPHICS 
POPULATION :1028610328 
POPULATION DENSITY :324 prsn/sq km
BIRTH RATE :2.2% 
DEATH RATE :0.65% 
TOTAL FERTILITY RATE :2.81/woman 
LITERACY RATE :65.38 
LIFE EXPECTANCY :68.59 
SEX RATIO :933 
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE :7.8% 

Here's a great set of slides on India's Energy Future (or something!)


Plenty o'Coal in India!  But that Puff Piece has a telling line in it, if one knows how to discern such:

"Less trace elements"  India's coal apparently has fewer "trace elements".

At least 73 elements found in coal-fired plant emissions are distributed in millions of pounds of stack emissions each year. They include: aluminium, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, boron, cadmium, calcium, chlorine, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, silver, sulfur, titanium, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.

Whole lotta heavy metals going on!

Frish (Rock On!)