This doesn't really have to do with realism... I'm just turning a real-life concept into a logical recipe that fulfills the requirements. There has to be some degree of realism in all the recipes - the kind called continuity. Electronics are made with circuitry, and run on electricity. That's one of IC2's most basic concepts, taken directly from RL applications, but turned into something fun to play with. I think making a sort of nuclear warhead instead of sand+uranium might fulfill the needs of making nukes more expensive.
But hey - I didn't even bring it up first. Get on Boone's case for bringing it up rather than me.
Yeah, that's right: this will be stupid if machines consuming rubber and crafting of buckets and redstone.