§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy for how may years proven reserves of uranium are expected to last assuming (a) the use of thermal reactors only and (b) the use of fast reactors in conjunction with thermal units.
§ Mr. Norman LamontReasonably assured resource of uranium (RAR) and additional resources estimated on the basis of direct geological evidence (EAR) of uranium are estimated at about five million tonnes in the world outside Communist areas. These resources alone should be sufficient to meet the lifetime requirements of all nuclear reactors operating in the world outside Communist areas by the year 2000.
How long these resources could last if used in both thermal and fast reactors would depend on how soon and on what scale fast reactors were introduced. A fast reactor has the potential, through 429W repeated recycling of fuel, to derive 50 to 60 times as much energy from a quantity of uranium as can a thermal reactor now in operation, and the introduction of fast reactors in due course on a significant scale by a number of countries would thus greatly extend the resource base.