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Monday, July 9, 2012
METRO
25
METRO
COSM
@GilliCosmonTwitter
SCIENCE & DISCOVERYby
BEN GILLILAND
Greenhouse gases
Coal
1,290
30
Nuclear
Grammes of carbon dioxide produced per
terawatt hour of energy produced
Tonnes of radioactive waste generated by a 1,000-mWh power station every year
Radioactivewaste
Nuclear
Coal
27
18
Unlike radioactivewastefrom nuclear
power stations, which is stored in
controlledconditions,mostofthe
radioactive waste from coal-burning
powerstationsisreleased into the
atmosphere among clouds of ash
7
Waste
Coal
400,000
Nuclear
27
Tonnes of waste
generatedbya
1,000-megawatt-
an-hourpower
station every year
(tonnes of ash)
One coal-burning
power station pumps
out about eight
Titanics’worthof
asheveryyear
Fossil fuels also contain radioactivematerial...
Themysteriouscaseofthe
radioactive apartments
Chernobyl
Ithasbeenestimatedthatduring 1982,
coal-burning in the US released 155
times moreradioactivematerial into
the atmosphere than wasreleased
during the partial nuclear meltdown at
Three Mile Island in 1979
The worst accident in the
historyofnuclearpower,
Chernobyl,released about
seven tonnes of
radioactivematerialinto
the atmosphere
On average, coal-
burningpowerstations
release 100timesmore
radiation into the
atmosphere than a
nuclear plant producing
the same energy
People living next to
coal-burningpowerstations
are exposed to the same,or
higher, levels of radiation
as those living next to
nuclearpowerstations
Globally,coal-powered
stations release 12,000
tonnes of the radioactive
element thoriumand 5,000
tonnes ofuranium into the
atmosphereeveryyear
One coal power
station will also
produce:
3.7million tonnes of
carbondioxide
(greenhousegas)
10,000 tonnes of sulphur
dioxide (acid rain)
10,200 tonnes of
nitrogen oxide
(smog)
720 tonnes of
carbonmonoxide
77kg of mercury
(highly toxic)
100kg of arsenic
52kgof lead
Thisarticleisn’tintendedasapeantonuclear
power.Instead,itisintendedtoremindthat,
althoughitdoesn’tgettheheadlinerealestate
ofnuclearaccidents,fossilfuel-derivedpoweris
notthesafeoptionwebelieveittobe.
2000, more than 42,000 of the
residents had died – but only 822 of
those deaths were deemed to be
related to radiation exposure.
Compare this with the 3million lives
that pollution from coal-burning
power plants claims every year.
Add that to the six coal miners that
die every day in China alone and
you’ve really got to ask: Why do we
honestly think energy extracted from
coal is safer?
In the early 1980s, a company based in
Taiwan made a batch of steel rods that
were used in the construction of an
apartment complex.
Unfortunately, a fair amount of the
highly radioactive isotope cobalt-60
was accidentally mixed in during the
manufacturing process.
For 15 years, residents lived in 1,700
apartments while they were subjected
to emissions about 30 times higher
than normal background levels.
When the mistake was discovered,
worried officials surveyed past and
present occupants and expected to find
a sort of mini cancer epidemic.
About 160 incidences of
cancer were expected by scientists
among the 10,000 flat-dwellers under
normal (non-elevated radioactivity)
circumstances.
Irradiated residents would probably
exhibit many more cases, they thought.
But to their astonishment, researchers
found just five examples of cancer – a
rate that was 97 per cent lower than
the average population.
Birth defects were also found to be 94
per cent lower than normal.
The exposure had immunised the
residents from cancer, it was
suggested, when the findings were
published in the Journal of American
Physicians and Surgeons in 2004.