[ RadSafe ] Radioactive coal to Kyrgyzstan transferred to criminal court

[Dan McCarn]

Hi Stewart:

The case may very well have merit if the contract for the coal specified
limits to uranium / radium. Most contracts for coal do specify sulfur as
well as radionuclides and heavy metals.

As a geologist, I assessed the uranium potential of a uraniferous lignite
in the Great Divide Basin, Wyoming back in 1980 including drilling of
several boreholes and calculating the uranium endowment.  The lignite
averaged about 100 mg/kg U.  Uraniferous lignites are not uncommon and are
distributed worldwide, especially in but not limited to basins that co-host
sandstone uranium deposits.  Always the radioactive nature is known for
these deposits because they are so distinctive with a characteristic SP &
resistivity response from borehole geophysical logging, and for uraniferous
lignites, a high gamma response.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c891/geophysical.htm

If  the contract in Kyrgyzstan specified limits to the amount of uranium /
radium that Kazakhstan supplied (and if I had written a contract for coal
it certainly would have expressed those limits as well as limits for
sulfur) then they have a very good case.

Uraniferous lignites are considered sources of uranium and thermal energy.
 By using fluidized-bed combustion technology, the uranium remains
recoverable rather than vitrified in the ash.

China is currently processing large piles of lignite ash for uranium in
order to dispose of the material and recover uranium. A number of other
countries have reviewed the technology and cost / benefits of uranium
recovery from lignites.

Dan ii

Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com


On  Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 11:37 AM, Stewart Farber <SAFarber at optonline.net>wrote:

> Perhaps the AG in Kazakhstan should be filing a lawsuit against God for
> "abuse of power" in allowing the Big Bang to occur, creating long-lived
> heavier elements like Uranium and Thorium. From the citation [
> http://en.trend.az/capital/business/1983973.html ]
> Cited earlier:
>
> "Kazakhstan supplied 8,576 tons of coal from Kulan field to Kyrgyzstan in
> September. Later, the radiation background of the Kulan field was estimated
> at 8-10 times higher than the norm. Kyrgyz Attorney General's Office filed
> a
> criminal case against officials of the Kyrgyz Railway and Energo Customs
> Procedures Department under the articles "illegal handling of radioactive
> materials" and "abuse of power"."
>
> This article should also be forwarded to US environmental groups like the
> NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council], Greenpeace, Sierra Club, and the
> so-called anti-nuclear "Nuclear Information and Resource Service"  so they
> can begin to file lawsuits against coal mining and coal-fired power plants.
>
> Stewart Farber, MS Public Health [Air Pollution Control]
> Acting President of the newly formed group COAL [Curmudgeons Of America Ltd
> ] :-)
> ==========================
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Rees, Brian G
> Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 10:15 AM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive coal to Kyrgyzstan transferred to
> criminal court
>
> Hmmm... maybe they should be paying better attention:
>
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactiv
> e-than-nuclear-waste
>
> Not that it's news to most of "us".
>
> Brian Rees
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Lawrence Jacobi
> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 11:46 AM
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive coal to Kyrgyzstan transferred to criminal
> court
>
> An interesting story re: radioactive coal:
>
> http://en.trend.az/capital/business/1983973.html
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