Re: radioactivity from fossil fuel power stations

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@PITT.EDU>]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, Susan Gawarecki wrote:



> Dr. Cohen,

> 

> I'm a geologist, but I don't understand what you mean by this statement:

> 

> > When coal is mined out of the ground and 

> > made to "disappear" as carbon dioxide, its carbon is replaced in the 

> > ground by other rock which contains U, Th, Ra.....



	-- My statement here is a simplification of a much more

complicated analysis, given in the paper cited, but I will try.

	When the carbon in the coal is burned, it disappears from the

ground. The volume of the ground that it occupied is then taken by other

rock or soil which contains uranium, and therefore eventually serves as a

source of radon. The carbon in the coal cannot serve as a source of radon.

The uranium impurity in the coal is returned to the ground eventually.

	In other words, the carbon in the coal takes up a volume in the

ground which produces no radon, while the rock that takes up that volume

when the coal is removed does produce radon. 



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