Coal and Uranium: Dangerous Liaisons
What is the link between coal power and nuclear power?
I mean - apart from the fact that they are both dirty sources of energy proceeding from fossil fuels that exist in limited amounts on the planet.
And also apart from the fact they are both a threat to the environment; the first one because of the amounts of CO2 it releases into the atmosphere, the second one because of all the dangerous substances released at the surface of the planet - both throughout the nuclear fuel chain and the ever-lasting radioactive waste it leaves behind.
Oh yes, and apart from the fact that both the coal and the nukes industry are committed to undermining all attempts to switch to renewable, clean, eco-friendly energy anytime soon.
No? No other ideas?
Well, believe it or not, coal also threatens your health as it contains high doses of …. uranium! Yep, that’s right. The fine fly ash produced by burning coal might contain high levels of uranium and thorium.
The consequences: a recent study in India by a South African scientist found that children born and living near coal power stations in the Indian state of Punjab show high levels of uranium in their bodies. Tests on ground water show that levels of uranium around the coal plants are up to 15X the World Health Organisation's maximum safe limits.
This slow poisoning of the Punjabi population led to a dramatic rise in birth defects and could have implications not only for the rest of the sate’s population – which is 24 million people - but also to all the other countries still using or planning to build coal power plants such as China, Russia, Germany, the US or the UK - just to mention a few. The possibility of depleted uranium being used in wars in Afganistan and Iraq has also come up - which is not comforting.
All of this is yet more proof that there is no room for coal and nukes in a sustainable healthy future.
(This is a guest post by Anne-Laure Meladeck, Climate & Energy Assistant at Greenpeace International)
