Out Came 20 000 Curies

摘要

On December 22, a fly ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal-fired power plant in Tennessee spilled about 4.2 million m3 of the ash after a dike failed. This residue of coal combustion spread across roughly 275 acres of the surrounding area. News coverage of the incident has called attention to the potentially hazardous materials in the fly ash, including lead, mercury, arsenic, selenium, and naturally radioactive materials such as uranium and radium. What does not seem to have been mentioned is that because of the sheer amount of material, this may have been the largest uncontrolled release of radioactive material ever, in terms of volume or mass.