• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Podcast
  • Archives
  • Links

Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Pound of uranium – how a man can carry thirty tanker trucks worth of energy

February 11, 2006 By Rod Adams

Many people that have heard me talk about the energy density of uranium have had the opportunity to see my “three shooters” demonstration.

Three shooters in the hand

For those of you who are totally lost, here is the background. If you compute the volume of uranium needed for a pound of the material you can compare it almost exactly to the volume of three large marbles – those of us old enough to have played the game used to call them “shooters”. Since a pound of uranium holds as much energy as 2,000,000 pounds of oil, and since the average over the road truck can carry about 65,000 pounds, it would take 30 tanker trucks of oil to contain the same amount of potential energy as a single handful of shooters.

Therefore, “Three shooters in the hand is worth 30 trucks on the road.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About Rod Adams

Managing member at Nucleation Capital, LP.
Atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. Financial, strategic, and political analyst. Former submarine Engineer Officer. Founder, Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. Host and producer, The Atomic Show Podcast. Resume available here.

Please subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed.

Primary Sidebar

Search Atomic Insights

The Atomic Show

Atomic Insights

Follow Atomic Insights

Recent Posts

Atomic Show #288 – Per Peterson, CNO, Kairos Power

Kenneth Pitzer blamed AEC advisors for slow power reactor development

Why did the US Atomic Energy Commission kill Daniels Pile in 1947?

How did an oil shale investor hamstring his atomic energy competition? (Ancient but impactful smoking gun)

Improved atomic energy offers a pathway that Princeton’s Net Zero America failed to acknowledge

  • Home
  • About Atomic Insights
  • Atomic Show
  • Contact
  • Links

Search Atomic Insights

Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Atomic Insights

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy