I really can't see nuke fuel ever being at a low price - demand is going through the roof, the stuff is running out. the nuclear pr machine has done it's work, sufficient governments are being suckered into it so that prices must inevitably skyrocket, so we are left with good old-fashioned real renewables as being the only sensible long-term solution....
I do agree with you on a renewable future, and am concerned that I may appear to be arguing in favour of nuclear, but the truth about the fuel cost, is that even if it was to skyrocket to 50 times the current cost for uranium ore, this would still have little impact on the output cost of a a nuclear KWh. The processing costs, plant costs, running costs and associated decommissioning costs are where practically all the generation costs are incurred. If ore costs rose substantially, then (and I'm guessing) I would expect large deposits to be discovered as very little thorough exploration has been done so far, and I believe some of the 'poorer' mines were shut down when weapons grade material became available.
Anyway, all that is arbitrary, as renewables can in the long term do the job, as long as fuel costs remain high. I would like to think that a brave government would heavily tax any cheap gas, in order to maintain prices, and use the money to subsidise renewables so that costs could continue to be reduced. However whilst I would like to believe that, the opportunity for all parties to win votes by promising to reduce environmental taxes is too scary to ignore.
As I said, the next 50 years will be interesting, lets just hope they are sensible and pleasant.
Martyn.
