3.6. Nuclear? http://www.ck12.org
Figure 24.16:Lithium-based fusion, if used fairly and “sustainably,” could match our current levels of consumption.
Mined lithium would deliver 10 kWh/d per person for 1000 years; lithium extracted from seawater could deliver 105
kWh/d per person for over a million years.
There’s another source for lithium: seawater, where lithium has a concentration of 0.17 ppm. To produce lithium at
a rate of 100 million kg per year from seawater is estimated to have an energy requirement of 2.5 kWh(e) per gram
of lithium. If the fusion reactors give back 2300 kWh(e) per gram of lithium, the power thus delivered would be 105
kWh/d per person (assuming 6 billion people). At this rate, the lithium in the oceans would last more than a million
years.
Figure 24.17:Deuterium-based fusion, if it is achievable, offers plentiful sustainable energy for millions of years.