Coal fired power plants are the worst polluters. Multiply the waste of one coal plant X the thousands now operating. Not to mention the coal slag piles.
“In fact, 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.” Our source for this statistic is Dana Christensen, an associate lab director for energy and engineering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as 1978 paper in Science authored by J.P. McBride and colleagues, also of ORNL.-from Scientific American Dec 13, 2007
***Coal fired power plants are the worst polluters. Multiply the waste of one coal plant X the thousands now operating. Not to mention the coal slag piles.****
“In fact, 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.”
Bunkum by thirty year old standards. Even power plants back then had electrostatic precipitators to remove 99.5 % of all the fly ash.
The local coal fired power plant here terified people when it started up. Today it has the best fishing lake in the area and it produces bumper crops of deer each year. bald eagles winter here and people now love it.
The fly ash is sold for filler in cement and the crushed slag is used for road beds, fill around water and sewer lines along with a dozen other uses. It is even sold to the public for various uses.