Interesting figures. I always wondered about effluents from coal burning (and coal mining, for that matter) due to radioisotope contamination of coal. First time I ever saw those figures. Can you get me a link? Just something short for the non-technical layperson. I’d like to learn more.
On another note, since the radioactive elements are busy decaying away, they represent a truly non-renewable (apart from a breeder reactor system) resource that, if it is not used, will only be getting smaller.
Not to use it to generate power is truly a waste of resources. In addition to burning coal for energy, it is also a valuable chemical feedstock. Using uranium and thorium for power generation frees coal for other uses. In the end there would be a greater number of cheaper resources. The tremendous cost of nuclear plants lies primarily in overengineering them due to environmentalist suits. In addition, the amount of high level nuclear wastes from one 1000 megawatt nuclear plant from one year of power generation would fit under a card table. Compare this with millions of tons of toxic ash from each coal-fired plant. And if we were able to reprocess spent fuel rods there would be even less waste sitting around and even cheaper fuel since only a very small percent of fissionable uranium in a fuel rod is used up per use. It's probably equivalent to buying a large pizza with everything on it, taking a single bite, throwing it away, and ordering another and so on until your hunger is satisfied.
There's also a good book called
The War Against the Atom by Samuel McCracken. This was written back in the 1980s. Okay, just checked on Amazon. It was 1983. All the arguments presented are no less valid today.