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Fun fact: in the UK low risk nuclear plant waste (for example workers' overalls) is bundled up and buried with... coal plant ash. Which is, of course, far more
by awjlogan 2y ago
Fun fact: in the UK low risk nuclear plant waste (for example workers' overalls) is bundled up and buried with... coal plant ash. Which is, of course, far more radioactive than the waste it is supposed to be protecting against. This was the case 15 years ago, may have changed since the UK has removed coal from its generation mix.
- ZeroGravitas 2y agoWhy do you claim the coal ash is intended to be "protecting against" the nuclear plant waste and not just different types of radioactive waste being buried together?
- awjlogan 2y agoCoal ash is not classed as radioactive and it was abundant and cheap as a useless by-product of burning coal. The point is more that things classed as "low level" waste from nuclear are most often completely harmless, just regulated differently due to public understanding of the word "nuclear". As such, its disposal is heavily regulated.
- fransje26 2y ago> Coal ash is not classed as radioactive And yet the largest human release of radioactive material in the environment comes from coal ash.
- lesuorac 2y agoCoal ash is commonly used in cement [1]. I would suspect the nuclear waste is being encased with cement to prevent its leakage with of course the punchline being that the encasement is more radioactive than its contents. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_combustion_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_combustion_products