And the profits grow

[kandrathe]

How come you all believe that technological advance will solve all problems for nuclear power, but not for solar power?

Btw, notice how that 85 years is based on consumption in 2004? When taking progress into account, the article estimates supplies to be sufficient up to ... 2025. Anyone thinks we will have that super technology by then?

Uranium is not the only fissile material, we might find other common materials that we can use as fuel. Back in 1932, Lord Rutherford demonstrated that power can be generated from Lithium decay. The ultimate result is a reaction that is clean, producing 2 helium atoms and 43 M.e.v. It is essentially the physics of the hydrogen bomb, which has not been explored as a viable commercial nuclear reactor. Fast breeder reactors have yet to be optimized commercially. And, with limited research in the field, we currently have a Fusion reactor has yielded 65% of input power. The ITER project hopes to have a working productive fusion reactor in place in France by 2016.

In contrast, there is nothing really we can do to increase the solar constant.