General Question
It may surprise you but a coal generation station such as TransAlta's Sundance plant at Lake Wabamum releases considerably more radiation into the environment each year than a safely operating nuclear power plant. Here are some facts:
- The Sundance facility is the largest thermoelectric plant in western Canada and one of the largest in the world. It generates 2141 MW of power.
- 1 kg of coal releases about 30 MJ of energy
- A typical efficiency for a plant like Sundance is 30%
- Coal contains 2 parts per million (ppm) of Uranium and 5 ppm of Thorium
When coal is burned it generates smoke and a very fine dust called fly-ash. In a modern power plant most of the fly ash is trapped by electrostatic "scrubbers" as it goes up the smoke stack and is salvaged. Assume that about 20% of combusted particulates are released as smoke and ash into the environment. Given the above information estimate:
- How much Uranium and Thorium is released into our environment each year.
- If the particulates from the plant precipitate out over a region of width 50 km and stretching 100 km down wind from the plant estimate how many mols of Uranium and Thorium will be deposited per square meter
- Discuss some of the potential health risks that this could produce.
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