‘Fallout’ from Coal Burning
Here’s an interesting and complicating bit of information to add in for the nuclear power debate at Sustainablog:
Because mineral coal contains trace amounts of radioactive materials such as thorium and uranium, when the coal is burned, those previously trace elements become far more concentrated in the fly ash residue. As a result, coal plant fly ash is actually more radioactive than nuclear power plant waste, and the land around a typical coal plant has a higher background radiation level than a similar area around a typical nuclear power plant.
The result: estimated radiation doses ingested by people living near the coal plants were equal to or higher than doses for people living around the nuclear facilities. At one extreme, the scientists estimated fly ash radiation in individuals’ bones at around 18 millirems (thousandths of a rem, a unit for measuring doses of ionizing radiation) a year. Doses for the two nuclear plants, by contrast, ranged from between three and six millirems for the same period. And when all food was grown in the area, radiation doses were 50 to 200 percent higher around the coal plants.
The whole article on coal fly ash at Scientific American makes for thought provoking reading.
