Forget Nukes: Coal-Fired Power Plants Can Emit 4X The Radioactivity of Three-Mile Island
Forget about being hysterical about Fukushima.
The average coal-fired power plant can continually emit four times the radiation as Three Mile Island.
How’s that possible? Because low-sulfur coal use in coal-fired plants contains thorium: a radioactive element that is released when the coal is burned.
What’s more, the particles containing the thorium are among those most likely to escape pollution controls and are the perfect size for lodging in the lungs of those who inhale them.
I wrote an award-winning investigative article on this issue some three decades ago. The article, based on numerous expert interviews including scientists at CalTech, UC Davis and other institutions — was instrumental in California’s denial of permits for new coal plants.
So, before anyone gets freaked about the minuscule amounts reaching the U.S. from the Fukushima reactors, they might want to take another look at something closer to home.
Now, I’m not an anti-nuke kinda guy. I spent the summer of 1966 working for Westinghouse in Elmira New York where I calibrated neutron counters that went in both commercial and military reactors (nuclear subs, aircraft carriers and a few guided missile cruisers from that era).
But this may be some interesting perspective.
Thought you might want to know.
