Coal Goes Nuclear

An older article by Alex Gabbard from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory website is a very cogent overview of the little known fact that coal plants are a major source of radioactive materials. Comments along these lines were made at the EIS Scoping Meeting last Thursday in Florence, SC:

[Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers] concluded that Americans living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants that meet government regulations. This ironic situation remains true today and is addressed in this article.

The fact that coal-fired power plants throughout the world are the major sources of radioactive materials released to the environment has several implications. It suggests that coal combustion is more hazardous to health than nuclear power and that it adds to the background radiation burden even more than does nuclear power. It also suggests that if radiation emissions from coal plants were regulated, their capital and operating costs would increase, making coal-fired power less economically competitive.

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