Final answer:
The R/P ratio is used to calculate the number of years a reserve will last based on the annual production rate. For example, if we have 2×10²¹ J of uranium reserves and the global energy appetite is 18 TW, it would take less than 4 years to exhaust the supply.
Step-by-step explanation:
The calculation for working out the number of years the reserve will last is called the R/P ratio (reserves to production ratio). To calculate this, we divide the total remaining resource by the annual production rate. The result gives us an estimate of the number of years the reserve will last at the current rate of consumption.
For example, if we have 2×10²¹ J of proven uranium reserves and the global energy appetite is 18 TW, we can calculate the time it would take to exhaust the supply by dividing the reserve by the consumption rate. In this case, it would be less than 4 years if using this source to support the entire energy appetite.