I looked into the amount of uranium that is available and the carbon cost of mining it. The Sustainable Development Commission (who are not really pro nuclear) concluded in this paper that there are no concerns about long term access to sufficient uranium. The World Nuclear Association states here that including mining and refining uranium it only uses 1.7% of the energy it produces. (But I can’t say if this figure has been independently verified).

I don’t think fission is the permanent solution. Even if we went down that route uranium would eventually run out, just like oil is. But I think it is a key part of getting us off coal / oil until eventually we discover how to initiate nuclear fusion. That should be all the clean energy we will ever need. But I only think we will get there if fission is developed / invested in due to the resulting advancements in nuclear technology.

It’s a really tricky one. It feels really weird to support nuclear, but I think its a big part of what we need to do.

Interesting programme by Stephen Fry on the clean up operation.