Re: "POLLUTION FREE"

[Alan Enns <aenns@unixg.ubc.ca>]

At 08:06 PM 30/11/95 -0600, you wrote:
>     Paul Vitalis covers a lot of ground on big picture risks for 
>     electricity generation in his note below.  I did gather some 
>     specifics on "pollution" and provide those for a quantitiative 
>     comparison:
>     
>     Characterize wastes from steam electricity generation:
>     
>     Fossil fuel power creates air pollution that is:
>          large volume
>          direct input to the environment
>          not contained, no controls
>          not persistent (is it diluted so much we don't care          
>               anymore?)
>     

I'm joining this thread late, so perhaps this has already been brought up,
but are there not detectable releases of radioactivity during the burning of
fossil fuels?  Also, there is a great deal more variability in the quality
of fossil fuels in use - some areas of the world burn some pretty low grade
coal - as well as a lot less in the way of controls and regulation.

Alan Enns
aenns@unixg.ubc.ca