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POOP-Naked t1_ir1kuza wrote

Lived near one of these in another state. The propaganda policy was that “it’s just steam!” Yes, steam that settles over everything with a thin film of fly ash.

But the ash is clean!

Wait- you said it’s just steam??

Yes

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SeeisforComedy t1_ir25jrt wrote

Also puts out lots of radiation.

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Strazdas1 t1_ir4h8qj wrote

A coal power plant has put out more radiation into the atmosphere in a year than all nuclear plants on the planet in thier lifetime. The only time nuclear plants beat coal plants in nuclear pollution was Chernobyl.

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redlightnetherlands t1_ir2sf5f wrote

Burning coal produces ash with low-level radiation, however, almost every coal plant in the US in the past 15 years was forced to retrofit to capture ash and the only things emitted are water vapor and CO2.

Most of the contamination in the study is from previous decades.

I'm not suggesting we should keep burning coal, just clarifying.

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Uptown-Dog t1_ir3eslx wrote

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/coal/the-facts-about-air-quality-and-coal-fired-power-plants/ says:

"One factor in improving air quality has been the pollution-control technologies used by coal-fired power plants. Today’s coal-fired electricity generating plants produce more power, with less emission of criteria pollutants, than ever before. According to the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), a new pulverized coal plant (operating at lower, “subcritical” temperatures and pressures) reduces the emission of NOx by 86 percent, SO2 by 98 percent, and particulate matter (PM) by 99.8 percent, as compared with a similar plant having no pollution controls [xv]."

So... we're still getting 14% of the NOx, 2% of the SO2, and 0.2 percent of the particulates. Those are obviously much better, but not zero, especially when one considers just the volumes involved: even a small percentage of a huge amount can still end up a very bad quantity.

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LargeSackOfNuts t1_ir2ggjs wrote

Its just propaganda at the end of the day. Remember when Trump said coal was clean? Its the dirtiest fossil fuel out there.

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Necessary-Dog5278 t1_iruk9cj wrote

If there's that much fly ash coming out that's definitely illegal and someone should contact the EPA.

If they are following regulations it should legitimately be mostly steam/carbon dioxide with no significant particulates. They're required to have scrubbers that remove almost all of the particulate matter.

This is not to say coal power plants are not bad for the environment. They definitely are, they emit carbon dioxide, heat pollution, etc. What another person said about it being the dirtiest fossil fuel out there is true.

I just want to clarify that these ones are breaking the law and being way worse for the environment than they could be.

Source: took a course on power plants in college.

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