Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste

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Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste

By burning away all the pesky carbon and other impurities, coal power plants produce heaps of radiation

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste/

I don't think you people who talk about extracting rare  earth from coal ash have considered  all the problems you will have. start with having to wear bunny suits on premises once you lose the coal ash exemption for nuclear materials processing.  You will have to live with the International Atomic Energy Commission annual inspects just like Iran.

"In a 1978 paper for Science, J. P. McBride at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and his colleagues looked at the uranium and thorium content of fly ash from coal-fired power plants in Tennessee and Alabama. To answer the question of just how harmful leaching could be, the scientists estimated radiation exposure around the coal plants and compared it with exposure levels around boiling-water reactor and pressurized-water nuclear power plants."

Each 600 mw coal plant produces enough u235 to manufacture one 200kt nuclear weapon every 18 months, enough U238 to produce 2 Plutonium bombs yielding 500kt  and enough Thorium to produce 3 U-233 bombs greater than 250kt a year.