Coal - The Completely Overlooked Radiation Source
American power comes from the following sources:
Coal: .............. 44.9%
Natural Gas: ..... 23.4%
Nuclear: .......... 20.3%
Hydroelectric: ..... 6.9%
Renewable: ....... 3.6%
Petroleum: ........ 1.0%
Of all of these, coal is the biggest radiological hazard.
Nuclear fuels and waste are shielded, monitored, and regulated. The same is not true of radiactive products from coal mining and combustion. Coal actually contains Uranium 238, Uranium 235, and Thorium 232. The solid waste of fly ash produced in coal plants contains 10 times its original concentrations in coal ore.
The coal industry has constantly fought EPA efforts to regulate coal mining and coal plant operation release of radioactive isotopes into the biosphere. In fact, the coal industry is seeking to have what fly ash it does capture before the rest flies up the flue and into the air classified as "inert." The coal industry plans to deposit these millions of tons of solid waste in abandoned mines and landfills with no shielding or monitoring, completely free to escape into local water tables.
This radiation from coal pollution is not trivial. An operating nuclear reactor yields about 3 to 6 milliRem per year in background exposure. Coal plant fly ash alone exposes its surrounding population to about 18 milliRems per year - 3 to 6 times an operating nuclear plant. If food is grown near the coal plant as well, then the fly ash radioactivity enters the food chain. The resulting radioactive exposure leaps to about 27 to 54 milliRem per year, 9 to 18 times the level of an operating nuclear power plant.
