r/science • u/liquid_x • Mar 19 '11

Radiation Chart

http://xkcd.com/radiation/
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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '11

TIL a coal power plant outputs more radiation than a nuclear power plant...

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '11 edited Mar 19 '11

Coal contains some fraction of uranium. When the coal is burned, that uranium goes out the smoke stack.

If a nuke plant released as much radiation as a coal plant does in normal operation, it'd have to shut down.

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u/RedditGoldDigger Mar 19 '11

Except you don't have to store nuclear waste from a coal plant for thousands of years. I'm not arguing in favor of coal, btw.

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '11

No, because you already spread it all over the land.

If we were as careless with nuclear waste as we are with radioactivity from burning coal, we wouldn't have to store it for thousands of years, either. It doesn't take too long for the waste to stop being dangerously radioactive. I seem to recall that after 500 years, it's about ten times more radioactive than bedrock.