3 ms·
No, coal is barely radioactive at all. The small traces of Thorium and Uranium are completely negligible. An old study from 1978 has estimated that nuclear reac
by fsh 3y ago
No, coal is barely radioactive at all. The small traces of Thorium and Uranium are completely negligible. An old study from 1978 has estimated that nuclear reactors emit somewhat more radiation than coal power plants, but the levels are overall insignificant [1].
This is only about emissions though. The radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants has many many orders of magnitude more activity than the emissions.
[1] https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.202.4372.1045 https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.202.4372.104...
- blibble 3y ago> This is only about emissions though. The radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants has many many orders of magnitude more activity than the emissions. yes I should have probably said "emission" not waste > No, coal is barely radioactive at all. but you need to burn orders of magnitude more of it, producing literal mountains of coal ash and exhaust emissions whereas for nuclear the waste is an extremely small volume, of which almost 100% of is captured scrubbing technologies have also improved since 1978, and scrubbing not-very-much thoroughly is a much easier than scrubbing vast amounts not-very-well
- pfdietz 3y agoThe radioactivity mobilized by U mining for LWRs is about an order of magnitude more than that mobilized by coal combustion, per unit of work produced.