[ RadSafe ] Radioactive coal to Kyrgyzstan transferred to criminal court

[Miller, Mark L]

As a matter of fact, to add to what Dan said, there were 2 UMTRA (Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action) sites in Bellfield & Bowman, SD, where the U content of the coal was high enough that they simply burned the coal (back in the 50s) to recover the ash and ship it to the Rifle, CO U mill site for U recovery for the U.S. nuclear weapons program.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan McCarn [mailto:hotgreenchile at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 1:34 PM
To: SAFarber at optonline.net; The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive coal to Kyrgyzstan transferred to criminal court

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-radi
> oactiv
> 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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