Coal Fired Plants Release More Uranium

In 7 Days Than All Nuclear Power Plants

in 50 Years Combined!

While Nuclear Power is Clean, Coal fired power plants are the ones that generate over half of the

United States’ electricity needs.

The coal generating these plants burn over 274,000 tons of waste PER day. This includes sulfur,

chromium, and uranium.

Out of that 274,000 tons, 3.3 tons of that is uranium. Annually, that is 1200 tons of uranium.

That is over 51 times the amount of uranium discharged during disasters like Chernobyl

combined, in the past 50 years.

This pollution is another reason why our environment is not doing so well, but there are pros and

cons to using this type of energy. There are definitely links to cancer including lung cancer to the

leaks of these coal powered plants, but the cost of not using them is even greater.

Total Operating Cost $/KWh

Nuclear------0.034

Coal---------0.043

Gas---------0.050

Wind--------0.083

Hydro-------0.071

Solar--------0.180

[KWh = kilowatt hour, or 1,000 Watts for one hour, or about 1.3 horsepower.]

Even though plant construction costs of nuclear power plants are high ($1,000 to $2,000 per KW

of capacity), the total lifetime operating costs including fuel make nuclear power a clear winner.

According to the energy-consumers-edge, not using coal or nuclear power plants would create

higher costs and more deaths than the side effects of using these plants would. What do you

think?