Coal vs Nuclear Radiation

Coal plants emit more radionuclides into atmosphere, but nuclear plants produce more radionuclides overall (burnt fuel). This coal nuclear pollution is however still very small to the point of irrelevance, the real pollution problem is with CO2, dust and mining coal.

" the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy"From: h

"Nuclear power plants release less radioactivity into the environment than coal plants"?

Coal also produces more radioactive waste - https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1018/do-coal-pl...

This is actually comparison with coal plants.Coal contains traces of uranium, which gets released during burning. The uranium released in such way would have been sufficient to generate the energy obtained from burning coal if it used for fission instead [0].So indeed, now we disperse the nuclear fuel in the atmosphere and freaking out about it much less then when instead it is being processed in a plant, and coal left alone.<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar

The waste produced by a nuclear power plant is orders of magnitude less than what a coal power plant produces. Even if we only look at radioactive waste - coal power plants produce more of it, only instead of being stored in a special underground site it is dispersed into the atmosphere giving us cancer.So yes, nuclear waste is a serious issue, but let's not forget that the alternatives have major environmental costs as well.(not from the US)

Fun fact: coal-fired power plants release more radiation than nuclear power plants do. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-...

Every single statement you made, with the exception of handling radioactive waste, applies more to coal than it does to nuclear power.Coal pollution doesn't "kill outright" - but does so slowly, over many years, and many, many more people than nuclear power.Coal waste continues to leak into the air, and into water systems.I'm not arguing that Nuclear power is "safe" (nothing, is - even solar power kills many people a year, mostly installers) - but I am suggesting we stay rational, and r

Yes, but you should put equal pressure on other industries that do as least as much harm. E.g. coal burning power station release more radioactivity [1] into the atmosphere (and other worse stuff) than nuclear power plants.[1] Coal contains some radioactive elements, and they are burning so much coal, that it gets significant.

Yet coal power plants pump radioactive, climate changing, material into the air we breathe by the chimney full, and gas vehicles do it by the cylinder full at the rate of ~1 litre/second outside homes and schools, and nobody gives a shit about "disposing of that safely in the medium or long term".You can dispose of nuclear waste "safely" by having a (single) Chernobyl style meltdown, continent-wide fallout, and long-term deadzone and still come out ahead of all