Nuclear power pros and cons: A comparative analysis of radioactive emissions from nuclear power plants and thermal power plants

On the basis of the public data statistics of recent years on pollution and emissions from nuclear power plants (NPPs) and thermal power plants (TPPs) in the Russian Federation and the published investigation materials from Russian and foreign experts in this field, a comparative analysis of the radioactive emissions into the environment was performed for NPP emissions, as well as emissions from TPPs that operate using coal. It is shown that the total contents of radioactive nuclides in the TPP emissions substantially exceed those from NPPs, even for modern TPPs that operate using coal with ash contents of not more than 10% equipped with a filtering system that allows the removal of not less than 97.5% of the ash. An especially difficult situation for TPPs is due to long-lived radioactive isotopes, which are disposed practically without monitoring (and have a greater quantity of radioactive waste than NPPs by several orders of magnitude) with slag and are released into the atmosphere with the ash of organic fuels (particularly, shale oil, and coal).