Re: Radiation doses from coal

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

	The uranium and its decay products trapped in ashes still serves
as a source of radon emissions, and eventually there is a calculable
chance that houses will be built over them and consequently have high
radon levels. This is by far the most important radiological impact of
coal burning, eventually causing 30 deaths per GWe-year, as shown in my
paper in Health Physics 40:19ff;1981. Of course all considerations of
health impacts due to radioactivity from coal burning are based on the
linear-no threshold theory, and if that theory goes at low dose, there are
no effects.

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Tue, 19 May 1998, it was written:

> Thank you all who so far responded to my question about radioactivity in 
> coal. I have looked at the link below and notice that on page 4 
> (approx.) where the total contents (uranium & thorium) are given, the 
> word "releases" is used: Given 1 ppm, the world release of uranium must 
> be something like 5000 tons annually (present rate which is increasing). 
> But is all this really released - it sounds like this all goes up into 
> the air? How much ends up in ashes etc (Thank you Alex for the "Chinese 
> consideration"? What is trapped in ashes could perhaps be seen as less 
> risk relevant. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Bjorn_Cedervall@hotmail.com
> 
> http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html
> 
> 
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