The USA used to burn about a billion tons of coal per year. Now down to
about a half billion tons.
About 10-12% of that tonnage is left behind as ash and slag which then
go into a landfill. That waste is slightly radioactive and contains a
variety of metals which were incidentally mined along with the coal
(mercury, cadmium, arsenic, among others). The clay lining of the
landfill doesn't last forever....they all end up leaking some.
That doesn't count the waste produced from mining, crushing, and washing
the coal. All of which produce toxic waste which also goes into a landfill.
People fuss and wring their hands that we don't have a /perfect /way to
handle nuclear waste, but nobody seems overly bothered that we don't
have a perfect way to handle the coal waste that we've already been
making for 200 years.
You're not particularly likely to be harmed by either properly handled
coal or fission waste, the coal waste is the more likely one to impact you:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/
And air pollution from fission is almost non-existent. We keep waiting
for the perfect energy solution instead of adopting the dramatically
better one that we already have available. We're pretty irrational
about this whole topic IMO.
On 7/9/2021 4:22 PM, Chuck McCown via AF wrote:
Pretty sure coal mining accidents plus black lung add up to more than
anything else on the chart.
Coal fly ash is more radioactive than any other radioactive thing
released as far as curies released.
Not sure how you calculate air pollution. Also not sure how you
quantify ultimate deaths from Chernobyl. Those numbers range from the
31 people that actually died at the time to 50 ultimate deaths. But
other calculate it as high as 900,000 Most of the firefighters and
other responders are either still living or lived a natural lifespan.
Still nuclear doesn’t touch coal.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/could-small-amounts-of-radiation-be-good-for-you-its-complicated
<https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/could-small-amounts-of-radiation-be-good-for-you-its-complicated>
My favorite story is the apartment building in Taiwan that was
constructed using radioactive rebar.
People bathed by high radiation for years had only 3% of the expected
cancer.
https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2020/12/the-curious-case-of-radioactive-apartments/
<https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2020/12/the-curious-case-of-radioactive-apartments/>
*From:* [email protected]
*Sent:* Friday, July 9, 2021 2:02 PM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] ***SPAM*** OT interesting graphic
I'd rather see the deaths by accident alone. "Air pollution" seems
like it could be a fuzzy number.
On Fri, Jul 9, 2021 at 1:19 PM Chuck McCown via AF <[email protected]>
wrote:
nuclear-10adesktop-2
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