Nuclear For The Green World

Coal Creates Bigger Environmental Disasters than Nuclear

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Concerns about radiation and nuclear used fuel are the primary reasons for public fear of nuclear energy. Radiation and nuclear science are not well understood by the average person. The terminology associated with nuclear science and radiation is, well, very scientific and scary-sounding to a lay person. It is because of this that the tiniest radiation dose from a nuclear energy plant is easily spun to sound like an enormous environmental disaster.

Contrast this sentiment with the apparent lack of concern for actual environmental disasters such as the spillage of a billion gallons of sludge comprised of coal ash and water that occurred in Tennessee in December 2008. A dike collapsed at the coal plant’s retention pond, releasing a massive amount of waste into surrounding lands. The headline(s) were muted and hardly could be considered a headline at all. It is as if the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who operates the coal plant in Kingston, TN, about 35 miles west of Knoxville, should not be drug through the media-mud like its nuclear counterparts are for far smaller infractions.

For some context, the TVA spill was around one billion gallons of a coal ash and water mixture (coal “sludge”) that befouled over 300 acres of land and the nearby Emory River. One billion gallons is equivalent to about 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools, not an insignificant amount. The spill destroyed three homes and damaged a dozen others. It also contained toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead, selenium, and radioactive chemicals such as chromium and barium.

TVA has been fined $11.5 million in addition to setting up a $40 million fund for economic development projects in the Kingston area. At least Tennessee officials are holding TVA accountable for their mess.

Contrast this with the extremely frustrating situation at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Vermont officials are in a political-posturing phase, latching onto a trivial and well-controlled incident involving a minute tritium leak at the plant. Rod Adams gave us some perspective on the amount and danger of the tritium leak at VY in a great article on The Energy Collective.

If the leak had been going on for a year before being detected and stopped, the total quantity of fluid that left the pipe would equal 138,000 liters. The total activity released would be 0.35 curies. If a single person consumed every drop of that water, their whole body radiation dose would equal roughly 30 rem.

This dosage of radiation is well below accepted levels for maintaining public health. The well-operated and perfectly safe Pickering B nuclear power plant in Canada releases 40 times as much tritium per day than the VY leak did in one year. That translates into 14,600 times as much tritium released from the Pickering B plant than from the VY leak. Keep in mind that the Pickering B unit is well within their accepted range of tritium release, so even 14,600 times as much tritium as VY is considered perfectly safe for the surrounding population.

The point here is that there is a huge to-do over a tiny issue at a nuclear power plant in Vermont; whereas almost no one talks about the actual devastation caused by a coal plant in Tennessee. And this is just one example out of a long line of environmental and safety hazards occurring at coal, oil and natural gas plants, wells, and mines across the country. It is increasingly frustrating to hear the media and politicians decry the smallest, most insignificant incident at a nuclear power plant when they seemingly turn a blind eye toward huge disasters at coal, natural gas, and petroleum-based power plants.

The only thing that can be done is to try and alter the perceptions and knowledge-level of the public as it pertains to their energy infrastructure. Understanding more about each source of energy including the challenges, costs, and efforts required to produce and distribute electricity, will help people to have a frame of reference when confronted with a news story about this or that “disaster” at such-and-such plant.