One of the the arguments used by the opponents of a 21st Century expansion in the use of nuclear power is concern about the release of radioactive compounds into the environment.  A legitimate worry, of course, except that when a Uranium rod in a nuclear reactor has served it's thermal purpose and is removed for either retirement or reprocessing - all the radioactive materials are in one place and can be disposed of in a safe, contained manner.  Nuclear opponents seem not to be willing to believe this fact, but the track record for the past fifty years of managing reactor waste material has been extremely safe and impressive.

As an alternative to nuclear fission power, however, the world has built over a thousand major coal plant projects in the last five decades.  Coal, like all fossil fuels, and indeed like all life from which those fuels are derived, contains extremely tiny concentrations of heavy metals, including some radioactive ones like Radium and Uranium.  Burning coal, especially burning the dirtiest coal in the dirtiest plants - actually releases this radioactive material into the general atmosphere in the form of microscopic particles of ash that can take years to settle to the surface within the seas and upon the landscape. 

Everything I have read on the subject to date indicates that, while tiny and insignificant from an environmental-harm and human-health perspective, the change in the radioactivity in the atmosphere resulting from compounds released into the atmosphere from coal burning is many orders of magnitude greater than any contribution resulting from the totality of nuclear activities including release incidents.  So, if one has to choose between coal and nuclear for one's electricity, then one might think about choosing nuclear to avoid radioactivity general exposure problems!

But aside from concerns about health and environment, someone extremely clever got to thinking that since even unrefined Uranium-Oxide is highly valuable (From 70 to 150 dollars per pound), it might be possible to refine enough of the stuff out of the fly ash to pay for the tremendous effort of doing so.

World Nuclear News Reports:


Sounds like an investment opportunity to me!