Earth has limited natural resources to continually support the generation of electricity

• 26 pounds of lithium
• 10 pounds of cobalt
• 110 pounds of nickel
• 9 pounds of manganese
• 55 pounds of copper
• 44 pounds of aluminum
• 154 pounds of graphite
• Plus, steel, plastic, and other metals for the battery casing.

It should concern everyone that all those "blood minerals", mostly from developing countries, come from mining at locations in the world that are never inspected or seen by policymakers and EV buyers.

• For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 6,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, just one Tesla EV battery requires the processing of more than 500,000 pounds of materials somewhere on the planet

The current rates of extraction of natural resources, such as coal, gas, lithium, cobalt, etc., to support the generation of electricity, are clearly unsustainable. Humanity is unable to replace those natural resources on Planet Earth, and obviously, the production sources will eventually run out.

At current rates of extraction of natural resources, the technically and economically available world resource base may be sucked dry in a few centuries, but our 4-billion-year-old Planet Earth will continue to exist in the solar system, with or without humans.

Before policymakers in the few wealthy countries disrupted the delivery of electricity with overly strict regulations, preferential subsidies, and cancellation of proven baseload sources like coal, nuclear and even natural gas, they should have solidified other sources, to ensure that the availability of affordable electricity would not be disrupted for consumers.

Those policymakers seem to be oblivious to the fact that at least 80 percent of humanity, or more than six billion in this world, are living on less than $10 a day, and billions living with little to no access to electricity. Today, politicians in the few wealthy countries are pursuing energy policies that promote the most expensive, intermittent and inefficient electricity generation.

A very strong incentive driving the current "nuclear renaissance" around the world is that nuclear generation provides continuous, uninterruptible and emissions-free electricity, and uses the LEAST amount of earth's resources to generate affordable electricity. With breeder reactors and recycling of nuclear waste, nuclear generation could become a viable solution to provide electricity for much of the world's population of eight billion people, far into the future.

The so-called "nuclear waste" is in fact only slightly used nuclear fuel (SUNF), since only about 3% of its energy potential is consumed before it is classified as "waste". Thus, we are burying or otherwise disposing of fuel which still has 97% of its potential for generating electricity, which represents a game-changing opportunity for providing the world with new, clean and affordable base electricity generation.

Today, the world has amassed approximately 90,000 tons (a volume that can fit in a large Walmart store-sized building) of SUNF. However, no "burial" solution is yet realistically proposed by the Federal Government.

• Storage: there is enough SUNF in storage to power the entire USA for centuries to come, and enough depleted uranium in storage to last for several thousand years, at today's US electricity production rate.
• Production: more SUNF is produced per year from existing light water nuclear power plants (that power only about 20% of the US demand), than would be needed to power the entire US with electricity from fast breeder reactors utilizing that same SUNF. The US urgently needs to convert its nuclear power system to fast breeder reactors and eventually decommission existing nuclear power plants.

Obviously, the unsustainable extraction of the earth's most accessible and inexpensive fossil fuels, which are used to produce more than 6,000 essential products and transportation fuels, as well as the minerals and metals necessary to go "green", will deplete the "bank". Thus, there is a need to seek a sustainable, long-term energy source to generate electricity, utilizing the earth's energy resources in the most efficient way, and using the LEAST amount of earth's energy resources.

In this context, it is easy to understand the current nuclear renaissance. Nuclear generation of electricity is an imperative, in order to ensure that the world uses its energy resources in the most responsible, efficient and beneficial way. SUNF and fast breeder reactors are the best chance for the world to provide the planet's population with continuous, clean, inexpensive and emissions-free electricity.