Re: 60th criticality accident -Coal Rail Crossing Accident PointThread

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/4/99 12:46:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ratcher@lanl.gov writes:

<< I recall looking at an analysis of "costs" of the production of power
 by one of the federal executive agencies (CEQ?) that showed that
 one person was killed per year per 1000 MW of operating capacity
 by coal trains at RR crossings.  It is just a matter of determining
 what the public judges to be acceptable risk.
  >>
=============
Something to consider on public risk acceptance:

Perhaps an even more apt comparison to let the public make up their minds 
about the level of risk at rail crossing accidents is the following. 
According to 20 year old data, I recall that for every coal miner killed in a 
coal mining  accident in mining a given quantity of coal, two members of the 
public are killed at rail crossing accidents in collisions between coal 
trains and cars or trucks.

Most members of the public manage to put coal mine accidents out of their 
minds thinking it is only an isolated industrial accident by workers who 
accept the risk. 

However, the deaths of two members of the public for every coal miner killed 
in an accident may give the average citizen some pause. This comparison is 
based on US data per a rigorous review by Brookhaven National Lab of the coal 
vs. uranium fuel cycles by Dr. Leonard Hamilton in the late 1970s, conducted 
for the licensing of the proposed Greene County Nuclear Plant by the New York 
Power Authority when I was on staff there as a Radiological Engineer.

 I have not seen more recent figures of public to coal miner accidental 
deaths, but doubt the ratio has changed sharply. It is likely that there hase 
been some reduction in  the number of coal mine fatalities per unit coal 
produced due to automation,  and an increase in the number of rail crossing 
accidents since coal is being hauled greater distances on average from mine 
to power plant. These two factors would likely make the ratio of public 
deaths to coal mining deaths somewhat higher than 2 to 1 today.


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Public Health Sciences
Director, Radium Experiment Assessment Project
172 Old Orchard Way
Warren, VT 05674

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