Dagur 14 ár 7 (dagur 2572, færzla nr. 1001):

Kol eru ekki öll þar sem þau eru séð:

Þegar kolum er brennt skilst úr þeim slatti af Þóríum-232 og Úraníum-238. Þetta dreifist yfir nálægar byggðir.

Hér er málið: kolaorkuver dreifa í kringum sig meira af geislavirkum efnum en kjarnorkuver. Og - það kemur ekkert Úran úr kjarnorkuverum. Sesíum og Strontíum, kannski, en ekki Úran. Úran fer inn í kjarnorkuver, ekki út úr þeim.

"For the year 1982, assuming coal contains uranium and thorium concentrations of 1.3 ppm and 3.2 ppm, respectively, each typical plant released 5.2 tons of uranium (containing 74 pounds of uranium-235) and 12.8 tons of thorium that year. Total U.S. releases in 1982 (from 154 typical plants) amounted to 801 tons of uranium (containing 11,371 pounds of uranium-235) and 1971 tons of thorium. These figures account for only 74% of releases from combustion of coal from all sources. Releases in 1982 from worldwide combustion of 2800 million tons of coal totaled 3640 tons of uranium (containing 51,700 pounds of uranium-235) and 8960 tons of thorium."

Ég hef lúmskan grun um að kolaorkuverið sem þeir hafi notað til grundvallar þessum útreikningum sé að nota óvenjulega geislavirk kol. Þetta er farið að verða grunsamlega mikið.

Svo er fólk að hafa áhyggjur af CO2, sem gerir ekkert. Hækkar *kannski* hitastig jarðar... með smá heppni.

En hvað um það:

"An average value for the thermal energy of coal is approximately 6150 kilowatt-hours(kWh)/ton. Thus, the expected cumulative thermal energy release from U.S. coal combustion over this period totals about 6.87 x 10E14 kilowatt-hours. The thermal energy released in nuclear fission produces about 2 x 10E9 kWh/ton. Consequently, the thermal energy from fission of uranium-235 released in coal combustion amounts to 2.1 x 10E12 kWh. If uranium-238 is bred to plutonium-239, using these data and assuming a "use factor" of 10%, the thermal energy from fission of this isotope alone constitutes about 2.9 x 10E14 kWh, or about half the anticipated energy of all the utility coal burned in this country through the year 2040. If the thorium-232 is bred to uranium-233 and fissioned with a similar "use factor", the thermal energy capacity of this isotope is approximately 7.2 x 10E14 kWh, or 105% of the thermal energy released from U.S. coal combustion for a century. Assuming 10% usage, the total of the thermal energy capacities from each of these three fissionable isotopes is about 10.1 x 10E14 kWh, 1.5 times more than the total from coal."

Þetta þýðir: geislavirku efnin sem eru í kolarykinu sem kemur úr strompum kolaorkuvera innihalda margfalt meiri orku en kolin sem voru brennd til að dreifa þeim um allt.

Eða: "coal-fired power plants are not only generating electricity but are also releasing nuclear fuels whose commercial value for electricity production by nuclear power plants is over $7 trillion, more than the U.S. national debt."

Ryk. Sóun að henda því bara.

Já - ORNL: Oak Ridge National Laboratory.