Re: Coal Ash

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

I have some references around here somewhere... 
In1982 U.S. coal plants burned 616,000,000 tons of coal.
According to email posted by Bob Loesch this contained
801 tons of uranium 11,000 lbs of which was U-235 and
1,971 tons of thorium.   This corresponds to several
hundred curies of activity.

On a side note, in the process of filling a landfill of
dimension 1 km x 1km x 30 m, one displaces about 30 curies each 
of the uranium and thorium series and 500 curies of K-40,
and significant amounts of other radionuclides.  This soil
is replaced by garbage containing something like 20 Ci of
C-14.

I think that this shows that it is extremely important to provide
a disposal facility of the highest engineering standards to
protect my 1 Ci of tritium radwaste from excessive exposure
to these isotopes. (Tough firmly lodged in cheek).

Dale