Is nuclear fuel a renewable fuel?

Answer 1

Nonrenewable, because it relies on uranium being found and extracted from ores, and there is no way to replace this once it is used up. It is true you can make fissile material from nonfissile U-238, but then eventually all the U-238 would be used up, so that breeding process just enables more energy to be obtained from the uranium source, it does not make any more.

It is still nonrenewable because the material we use to produce the energy can't be replenished as fast as we use it.

Yes, nuclear power uses uranium as the fuel and there is only a certain amount on earth so when it is used up there will be no more. There are reactors that can breed fissile fuel from non-fissile U238, and these will probably be used in the future so making much more fissile fuel available, but obviously the U238 will run out eventually. If fusion power becomes a reality this will make a huge energy resource available, namely the water in the oceans, and this would never be used up in millions of years, but strictly speaking it would still not be renewable.

The elements used for nuclear fission, plutonion and urainium, are non-renewable but theres lots of it and the 1kg of nuclear fission can transfer more energy than 1 kg of coal or oil

Nuclear fusion is not renewable. It requires hydrogen nuclei as an energy source, and once these have been used in fusion they are not naturally replenished. In fact, fusion power has a very high energy change, rendering it near impossible to reverse the process. A star, for example, is powered by nuclear fusion, and will eventually die out due to a lack of hydrogen.

It uses non-renewable fuel. Of course you can take out the old fuel and replace it with new fuel, but there is a finite amount of fuel available, so it will eventually be used up if we continue to build and run fission reactors for another 100 years or so.

Nuclear energy as we use it at present is not renewable as it relies on supplies of fresh uranium which are finite. So called breeder reactors can make use of uranium 238 which is not fissionable, to make fissionable plutonium, and that would extend the usefulness of uranium, but it is still not renewable, the earth has only a fixed and finite amount on it.

If fusion becomes usable, there are millions of tons of deuterium (heavy water) available so it could be regarded as infinite, certainly it would last as long as mankind is likely to. It is not renewable in the sense that more of it can be made though.

It is not renewable because it uses uranium or other material which exists in nature but cannot be replaced when it is used up

Nuclear uranium energy is non-renewable. Uranium is a substance stored in the Earth's surface. Once all the uranium has been dug up and used, nothing is left.

Nuclear energy can be either a renewable or a nonrenewable energy resource depending on the technology used. Breeder reactors can produce more fuel than they consume and therefore can be regarded as "renewable", but are typically more susceptible to misuse (weaponization) of their products, and are rarely if ever used as commercial reactors. Ordinary reactors are not breeders, and produce only spent fuel as output. That is, they rely on uranium ore that was mined and processed into the original fuel rods. The spent rods can be reprocessed and some fuel recovered, but only some - new fuel rods produced from mined ore will eventually be required. Therefore, in practice, most nuclear power plants are effectively "non-renewable" energy resources.

There is in fact a way to extend the fuel supply for nuclear energy, but it involves making plutonium from non-fissile uranium in breeder reactors. Plutonium is also a key ingredient for nuclear bombs. While this is a known way to produce a longer lived supply of nuclear energy, the dangers of making this fuel are such that the international community frowns strongly upon the use of breeder reactors because of their proliferation issues. (see the Web Links to the left of this answer for more about breeder reactors).

The present type of nuclear plants use uranium and there is a finite amount of this on earth, so as it is used up the amount left reduces and it is not renewed. There are other types of reactor that can breed more fuel (usually plutonium) but these have not been commercially developed. If fusion can be developed this will make another large source of energy available, and the amount of deuterium available in the oceans would make an almost infinite amount of energy, but still not renewable.

The nuclear reactor itself is not really a resource, but the Uranium235 fuel that is used is nonrenewable, in that once it is fissioned, it's done, and it can't be used again, and naturally no more fissionable material would be produced in any short period of time. However, it is possible to artificially produce nuclear fuel in a breeder reactor, so nuclear fuel could be classified as a renewable resource, up to the point where all the breeder material itself has been used up. No workable commercial type of reactor has been developed. For the present we have to regard nuclear fuel as non renewable, but if and when uranium runs out, this type of breeder reactor may have to be developed (see below)

The current method of obtaining nuclear energy in nuclear reactors is using enriched uranium (U235 is the fissile isotope). There is a finite amount of this on earth, it cannot be replaced, so it is non-renewable. Other possibilities include breeding fissile plutonium from U238, or U233 from thorium. Both would make more use of the earth's resources, though there are technical difficulties which make these methods unattractive at present. They would still be using non renewable sources, though as there is a lot of depleted uranium available (which is mostly U238), and large deposits of thorium in some countries, this would prolong the use of nuclear reactors beyond the time when the U235 runs out. However we are talking here of 50 years or more in the future, so we have time to solve the technical problems.

Nuclear fusion, if it ever becomes usable, will have an almost limitless source of deuterium from the oceans. It is not strictly renewable, but probably limitless within the lifespan of the human race. This comes into the category 'is the sun's energy renewable?'. We regard it as so because we can't imagine the sun failing, but of course it will do eventually, billions of years hence.

Answer 2

Nuclear waste is a renewable resource.

Answer 3

No