Union of Concerned Scientists: radioactive emissions from coal combustion higher than nuclear plants

[txlibdem]

Coal is the enemy of all mankind and the largest single cause of global climate change. It wastes 2.2 billion gallons of water each year per coal plant. And now the Union of Concerned Scientists has stated that coal power plants put out more radioactive emissions than nuclear power plants:

Quote:
"Trace elements of uranium. All but 16 of the 92 naturally occurring elements have been detected in coal, mostly as trace elements below 0.1 percent (1,000 parts per million, or ppm). A study by DOE's Oak Ridge National Lab found that radioactive emissions from coal combustion are greater than those from nuclear power production."
... from http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/brief_coal.html

Whoops! All you anti-nukers better rethink your love of coal power plants...

Quoting from the same source:
"A 500 megawatt coal plant produces 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year, enough to power a city of about 140,000 people. It burns 1,430,000 tons of coal"

The UCS didn't give exact numbers but they link to an ORNL paper on the subject of exactly how many TONS of Uranium each coal plant spews out every year. If Uranium were .1 percent of the coal then each 500 MW coal plant would be putting out 1,430 tons of Uranium per year. Fortunately, Uranium and Thorium are indeed trace elements in coal but at far less concentration than that. ORNL states that each coal plant puts out 5.8 tons of Uranium and 11 tons of Thorium each and every year, year in and year out, decade after decade.

You read that right: coal plants spew out tons of Uranium each and every year. And the worst part is that none of it is regulated by the government like nuclear power plants are and most of it ends up in open pits or open ponds (they call them "slurry" ponds or "ash" ponds to mask how deadly they are).