Wednesday, May 13, 2009
THE MENACE OF RADIOACTIVITY RELEASED BY POWER GENERATION
The releases of radioactive materials per typical [Coal] plant can be calculated for any year. For the year 1982, assuming coal contains uranium and thorium concentrations of 1.3 ppm and 3.2 ppm, respectively, each typical plant released 5.2 tons of uranium (containing 74 pounds of uranium-235) and 12.8 tons of thorium that year. Total U.S. releases in 1982 (from 154 typical plants) amounted to 801 tons of uranium (containing 11,371 pounds of uranium-235) and 1971 tons of thorium. These figures account for only 74% of releases from combustion of coal from all sources. Releases in 1982 from worldwide combustion of 2800 million tons of coal totaled 3640 tons of uranium (containing 51,700 pounds of uranium-235) and 8960 tons of thorium.
...Thus, the population effective dose equivalent from coal plants is 100 times that from nuclear plants
Radioactive material is everywhere & if you dig stuff out of the ground you are going to dig up radioactives & if you burn it you are going to have smoke with radioactivity in it.
Indeed "the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy." Here is a comparison of the amount of radioactive exposure we are subject to.
By this standard the exposure from coal burning plants will be another 10%.
Studies of radioactive radon in homes have been done & consistently found a small hormetic effect (smoking being a much larger masking effect for obvious reasons). Indeed they have been done repeatedly because they keep coming up with the same "wrong" answer. Clearly if the effect of radon is at least 550 times greater than that of nuclear power generation & 180 times greater than all the nuclear bombs ever tested & yet it is actually beneficial there is no possible case for saying commercial nuclear power, or even radioactivity from coal power is in any way harmful.
I also wrote here about radiationn hormesis a few days ago.
...Thus, the population effective dose equivalent from coal plants is 100 times that from nuclear plants
Radioactive material is everywhere & if you dig stuff out of the ground you are going to dig up radioactives & if you burn it you are going to have smoke with radioactivity in it.
Indeed "the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy." Here is a comparison of the amount of radioactive exposure we are subject to.
By this standard the exposure from coal burning plants will be another 10%.
Studies of radioactive radon in homes have been done & consistently found a small hormetic effect (smoking being a much larger masking effect for obvious reasons). Indeed they have been done repeatedly because they keep coming up with the same "wrong" answer. Clearly if the effect of radon is at least 550 times greater than that of nuclear power generation & 180 times greater than all the nuclear bombs ever tested & yet it is actually beneficial there is no possible case for saying commercial nuclear power, or even radioactivity from coal power is in any way harmful.
I also wrote here about radiationn hormesis a few days ago.
Labels: Hormesis
