Natural Radionuclides in Coals and Its Processing Products

摘要

The industrial utilization of fossil coals creates urgent ecological problems caused by the influx of wastes into the environment. The potential danger and the consequences of the impact of wastes on livings things in the biosphere had been realized at the outset of the industrial usage of coals. However, only recently has it become obvious that the different degree of ecological hazard is determined by the specificity of the components of wastes, which are different with respect to chemical properties and the character of their impact on the environment. At the beginning much attention was focused on the macrocomponents formed upon combustion of coals: volatile compounds (CO_2, CO, SO)2, NO_x), soot and ash, which exert a direct impact on the hygienic situation in the environment. At a later time, when various microelements (trace elements, TE) were detected in fossil coals [1, 2], it became evident that the latter are ecologically no less hazardous [3, 4]. Their impact on all living things manifests itself with time as a result of the cumulative effect and the net result of their influence arises from the overall effect of the toxic trace elements present in coals [5]. Of the entire range of trace elements the most deleterious effect on the environment is exerted by thermally mobile ones [6], which are capable not only of penetrating into the functional organs of living organisms but, accumulating in the soil, exert a prolonged effect on the living world.