SH Archive Weaponry. Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste

[KD Archive]

Well, that's something I definitely did not know:

• Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste

Coal contains significant quantities of uranium and thorium, two mildly radioactive elements. Burning coal concentrates these two metals and thus their radioactivity in coal ash. The amounts are significant enough that the United States Atomic Energy Commission, in the early 1950s when substantial domestic sources of high-grade uranium ore had not yet been located, seriously considered extracting uranium from coal ash for atomic bombs.

• Opinion | Radioactive Coal Ash

KD: A quick search of mine, did not produce anything valuable. In case you ever come across any pre-20th century weapons using coal, please post a link in here.

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[codis]

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Username: codis
Date: 2019-11-18 09:12:44
Reaction Score: 5

What a dishonest headline - and article.
It says:

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. * [See Editor's Note at bottom]

Dishonestly supposing the exhaust / fly ash generated by a nucear plant is all the wast generated.
Several more or less severe accidents speak a different language.

KD: A quick search of mine, did not produce anything valuable. In case you ever come across any pre-20th century weapons using coal, please post a link in here.

Black powder ?
It uses char coal as main component, besides of potassium nitrate. Sulfur is optional, to increase ignition sensitivity.

Not pre-20th century, but the Third Reich experimented with thermobaric weapon, especially coal dust, with remarkable success.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-11-18 15:43:44
Reaction Score: 2

If there were any truth in that article I shouldn't be here. First twenty seven years of my life was in the company of coal fires, a coal fired power station was less than a mile from me and most houses up till the mid seventies in these parts burnt coal. Perhaps I am actually dead from radioactive coal ash and don't realise it.

 

[codis]

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Username: codis
Date: 2019-11-19 06:52:40
Reaction Score: 0

If there were any truth in that article I shouldn't be here. First twenty seven years of my life was in the company of coal fires, a coal fired power station was less than a mile from me and most houses up till the mid seventies in these parts burnt coal. Perhaps I am actually dead from radioactive coal ash and don't realise it.

The statement "a hundred times more" does not mean anything without an "anchor point" (i.e. a total figures).
During communist times, Eastern Germany mostly relied on brown coal for power generation. Ashes from power plants rained down in abundance everywhere in a 50 mile radius, and the officials used to prohibit growing vegetables, because of the pollution. Not sure of any radioactive content.
But at about that time, an electrostatic method of emission control was developed, which is used for nuclear plants as well. All the radiating waste is kept inside, and later buried somewhere secretly.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-11-19 09:02:04
Reaction Score: 1

The statement "a hundred times more" does not mean anything without an "anchor point" (i.e. a total figures).
During communist times, Eastern Germany mostly relied on brown coal for power generation. Ashes from power plants rained down in abundance everywhere in a 50 mile radius, and the officials used to prohibit growing vegetables, because of the pollution. Not sure of any radioactive content.
But at about that time, an electrostatic method of emission control was developed, which is used for nuclear plants as well. All the radiating waste is kept inside, and later buried somewhere secretly.

Not hundred percent on this but the power station here collected all its fly ash by the use of water spray or scrubbers r maybe condensers and kept it on site in great pits alongside the power plant itself. As fresh wet ash was piled n top the existing ash settled under the pressure. They were known locally as sinking ash pits and we avoided them like the plague as kids.
Nothing grew on this ash and the leachate from it was channeled into a salt marsh alongside which was itself drained and refilled by the tide via a tunnel through the sea wall which had been built during the local dock building effort in the late 1800's.
I do not recall what if any remedial work was done after the power station was taken out of use and demolished to be replaced by a gas fired station but the land the sinking ash pits were on now supports incredible amounts of plant and animal life as dees the drainage channel.
In the street where I am there are fifty three houses each one of which has four fire places most have five and a couple six . All burned coal so the pollution from soot must have been off the scale before I was born as this level of coal burning was normal. Blackspot a fungal disease on roses only appeared in the early eighties when enough coal was replaced by gas burning so who knows what polution I breathed in during my first two decades.

 

[codis]

Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.
Username: codis
Date: 2019-11-19 09:46:43
Reaction Score: 1

Not hundred percent on this but the power station here collected all its fly ash by the use of water spray or scrubbers r maybe condensers and kept it on site in great pits alongside the power plant itself. As fresh wet ash was piled n top the existing ash settled under the pressure.

There are surely different methods for emission management, based on different technologies. I'm not quite an expert in this field, just heard of a few of them.

They were known locally as sinking ash pits and we avoided them like the plague as kids.

Ash is firstly highly caustic (metal oxides and hydroxides), and irritates the skin, mocous membranes, and eyes. Not a thing to play with.

I do not recall what if any remedial work was done after the power station was taken out of use and demolished to be replaced by a gas fired station but the land the sinking ash pits were on now supports incredible amounts of plant and animal life as dees the drainage channel.
In the street where I am there are fifty three houses each one of which has four fire places most have five and a couple six . All burned coal so the pollution from soot must have been off the scale before I was born as this level of coal burning was normal. Blackspot a fungal disease on roses only appeared in the early eighties when enough coal was replaced by gas burning so who knows what polution I breathed in during my first two decades.

But secondly, ash is (often) the concentrated mineral content of plants, and thus highly suitable as fertilizer. My parents use it in theyr garden as well, only not in high (and caustic) concentrations.
Many diseases, being it of mammals/humans or plants, are caused or aggravated by nutritional deficiencies.

 

[Archive]

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Username: HulkSmash
Date: 2019-11-19 16:00:06
Reaction Score: 1

Well, that's something I definitely did not know:

• Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste

Coal contains significant quantities of uranium and thorium, two mildly radioactive elements. Burning coal concentrates these two metals and thus their radioactivity in coal ash. The amounts are significant enough that the United States Atomic Energy Commission, in the early 1950s when substantial domestic sources of high-grade uranium ore had not yet been located, seriously considered extracting uranium from coal ash for atomic bombs.

• Opinion | Radioactive Coal Ash

KD: A quick search of mine, did not produce anything valuable. In case you ever come across any pre-20th century weapons using coal, please post a link in here.

I heard they are using fly ash in the cocktail that the Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering (SAG) program uses to spray our skies. A way to dispose of that waste. They hardly need to process it at all because its already nano-particle sized. Those metal oxides are able to be 'charged' in combination with the NEXRAD transmissions. Spray the sky, energize the volume of air in sky(tell tale clue are those "gravity waves"), and voila we get our next named weather event.

 

[codis]

Note: This post was recovered from the Sh.org archive.
Username: codis
Date: 2019-11-20 06:37:11
Reaction Score: 1

They hardly need to process it at all because its already nano-particle sized. Those metal oxides are able to be 'charged' in combination with the NEXRAD transmissions. Spray the sky, energize the volume of air in sky(tell tale clue are those "gravity waves"), and voila we get our next named weather event.

I suppose the small particles provide condensation nuclei, and block light.