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A comment on Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has come. Parent comment

Re:Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has ... by hkt on Thursday March 24, 2022 @06:15AM (#30787952)
Only because the extraction process is dirty and we aren't willing to do it as cheaply. Waste from mining other minerals is rich in REMs, and deposits are plentiful. "Rare" is actually a misnomer:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/15/are-rare-earth-elements...

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Re:Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has ... by aaaaaaaaaaab on Thursday March 24, 2022 @04:30PM (#30794986)
So it's pretty much like Uranium then. It's not rare, but we outsource its mining to autocratic regimes, because they're willing to produce it cheaply (while destroying their environment).
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Re:Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has ... by hkt on Thursday March 24, 2022 @05:48PM (#30795738)
Pretty much.

Worth shouting out that it is also sourced in former colonies that still have major dependencies on their old imperial masters. Niger/France have this relationship and Niger produces the majority of uranium used by the French nuclear industry.

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