In: Physics
A typical American has a carbon footprint of 40-ish tonnes per year. If somehow, magically, all of that fossil-fuel consumption could be converted to nuclear fission energy, how much nuclear reactor fuel would you need to use? To perform this calculation, look up the energy you get for every carbon triple bond you use up (use that for the carbon mass-to- energy conversion, assming you release one carbon atom for every triple bond broken). You will also need to look up the fission energy per uranium atom, and the mass of the uranium atom, or equivalent.
That is, if an American converts 40 tonnes of carbon fossil-fuel usage per year over to uranium fission reactor nuclear energy, how much uranium would that person use per year? Give your answer in kg.
Now consider nuclear fusion: Look up the energy per atom and atomic mass for fusion reactions, in some ideal future in which fusion is awesome. How much fusion fuel would each American need each year? I prefer this answer in KG.