Chamalapura Thermal Power Station: A Partial Estimate of Health Effects based on Radiation Release through Stack and Flyash Utilisation.
Copyright © 2012 Ramaswami Ashok Kumar
Table CEC succinctly brings the prognosis for a cancer epidemic in Mysore area and other regions in a 88.5 km radius surrounding the proposed Chamalapura Thermal Station, totally unnecessary to meet Bangalore’s needs. The present risk of 72 fatal cancers per annum per 100000 of the population will increase by 4 to 5 times when all utilitarian measures for the flyash are put in place in the area. Chamalapura is not an end in itself. With some 100000 MW of thermal capacity in place, all India will similarly face this risk. It is not only this risk, but the risk of fatal doses to all ages resulting in enhanced infant mortalities and still births of unspeakable magnitudes that is the prognosis on an all India basis. By implication, this will result shortly in a further population explosion by means of the survival instinct penetrating the general public. On the basis of the ECRR recommendations it is easy to estimate such mortalities. But the prognosis placed above should deter any policy from being implemented which continues with coal firing without energy conservation life styles and methodologies being implemented. For example it is a well known practice in India of vapour absorption air conditioning which saves up to 92 percent of electricity consumption using vapour compression methods.When one walks into the Delhi Macdonalds one sees vapour absorption cooling at work! See
http://absorptionac.blogspot.in/
If practices like these penetrate malls and offices in Bangalore, will there be any need for Chamalapuras? Similarly, the thodaemaelays should be run by pedal power driven generators plugging in homes and offices. These should be run by officers and workers with beautiful paunches so that the need for another few thousand megawatts of Chamalapuras just vanish!
Jai Chamundeshwari! Give the policy makers food for thought.
At the begin of the 20th century Mahatma Gandhi warned: The East can meet the West when the West threw overboard almost the whole of modern civilization; the East can also meet the West when the East embraced modern civilization; but that will be an armed truce.
Given enough time modern civilisation will destroy itself.
Kannada Haikus
The case for a normal civilization
A mall of a good size like the ones in Bangalore or Mumbai, spends 1300 to 1400 kWhrs(units) of electricity a day. 70 percent of that is for air conditioning and refrigeration- vapour compression type. If they used vapour absorption cooling(with associated lining up of low quality energy), 92 percent of the electricity consumption for air conditioning can be saved. The implications for climate change of this substitution are significant indeed. See an account of the forgotten technology given by Dr MN Saha in his book on heat published 70 years ago(M.N.Saha et al 1936). For a quantitative commercial application on a crash basis, reputed firms and technocrats and managers will surely come forward like Thermax and others. Especially when a power saving of some 50000 MW- fifty thousand megawatts can be effected by such means. Imagine the destructive and unsettling power stations that will not be built, if we have the wisdom to make wise choices. According to An Air Conditioning System Using Solar Energy, A Short History, and Description of an ICPC/2E Chiller as Designed by Solargenix Energy, E. Thomas Henkel, Ph.D
Solargenix, Energy, LLC,June 22, 2001(Solargenix Energy at www.solargenix.com):
Every 1000 tons of installed solar/natural gas absorption air-conditioning equipment permanently relieves the electric power grid of an average of 1 MW of demand. This is 70 percent average saving of electrical demand based on 1.4 kW per ton refrigeration.
This follows from the present electricity scene: 120000 MW capacity. Out of which, 80000 MW for air conditioning and refrigeration is the demand. With vapour absorption units instead of vapour compression systems in place, the electricity demand for this would be only 24000 MW! Thus 56000 MW would be transferred to other legitimate uses. The real need would come down to 120000-56000 or just 64000 MW. Six times this would be some 384000 MW by 2030, not 800000 MW AS CLAIMED IN THE REPORT OF tnn AND agencies. 2006! Note that conservation and substitution potentials in other areas have not been even considered in this estimate. Indian industries are pioneers in such applications. See for example how total energy systems are getting credit for demand substitutions in India (Examples: The Tata Chemicals and Bharat Petroleum).
Kannada Haikus
Table CEC ya Chamalaatkaaravannu noodi!
In India fifty thousand megawatts of living energy for the eternal wheel of life!
As told by God(Or the truth is):
Brief on Chamalapura coal fly ash & smog disaster. Prevent a cancer epidemic and millions of infant mortalities and still births all over India
Is there a disaster? ... Yes, a slow yet 'silent' deadly disaster.
Is it well known? ... No! This 'silent' environmental disaster is not known generally
by the majority of public. The public will hear of these problems from time to time. However, the
powers that be use media and industrial psychology to falsely cover or distract from the truth.What is this disaster? ... Massive production of poisonous fly ash and smog
from burning coal. The inadequate disposal of fly ash in Chamalapura is causing(He sees!)
long term poisoning. Note that coal is one of the most impure of fuels.Where is the source of this disaster? ... Chamalapura Power Station.
What are the 'powers that be' doing about this? ... Very little!Why "very little" ? ... Adequate disposal is very costly. It is cheaper to keep the many environmental problems concealed from the general public.What is coal fly ash? ... It is fine particulate ash resulting from the combustion of coal, and discharged as airborne emissions whereby much is recovered by solidification
while suspended in the exhaust gases, being collected by electrostatic precipitators or filter bags. As the particles solidify while suspended in the exhaust gases, fly ash particles are usually spherical in shape and range in size from 0.5 - 100 μm.
What is this smog? ... It is a result of the poisonous gases containing nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide combining with other pollutants to form the most noxious parts of this smog. Note that these gases cause acid-rain damage. Acid rain is a broad term referring to a mixture of wet and dry deposited material from the atmosphere containing higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. Prevailing winds can blow these compounds over hundreds of kilometres.
What pollutants does fly ash consist of ?
It consists of inorganic incombustible matter present in the coal that has been fused during combustion into a glassy amorphous structure. Coal can range in ash content from 2%-30%, and of this around 85% becomes fly ash, with the remaining 15% called bottom ash which isn't lifted up by the flue gases. Fly ash contains silicon dioxide, aluminium oxide, iron oxide, and heavy metals including nickel, vanadium, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, barium, chromium, copper, molybdenum, zinc, lead, selenium and traces of radioactive materials.
As large amounts of fly ash are produced, a tremendous amount of radioactive waste is generated. This radioactivity is due to the elements in the decay chain of uranium and thorium; the radium is of concern as 226Ra decays to form radon (222Rn) which has a half-life of days and is able to form mobile daughter radioisotopes.This type of radioactive material often is known by the code name NORM. Note that when you inhale radon 222, it converts to deadly radioactive polonium 210, a solid: which cannot be washed out of your lungs! Remember Litvinenkov?Producers of fly ash contend that this ash is harmless and has similar properties to soil. This is not correct!
It has been estimated that about 7 million tonnes (Mt) are disposed of annually in Australia, 40 Mt in the United States and hundreds of megatonnes in India and China. As a result, the disposal of fly ash is a growing concern.
What does Chamalapura Power
Station propose to do with its fly ash?
Collected ash is disposed in ash ponds and landfills, while some is sold for use in the cement and other industries. Ash would be seen on adjacent land to Chamalapura Power Station, like in Raichur a result of being blown by wind. Small amounts no doubt must blow for hundreds of kilometres over the years.
"Stop the poisoning.
Poisonous gases and fly ash
blowing in the wind make
me sick."
What does the Ontario(Canada, not KannadaNadu!) Medical Assoc. (OMA) say about smog (air pollution) ?
Burning coal produces smog and harms our health -
Estimates are that air pollution costs Ontario more than $10 billion per year in health care costs, lost work time and other quantifiable expenses, as well as killing an estimated 2,000 Ontarians each year. The OMA has declared air pollution "a public health crisis" in Ontario. Coal-fired power plants are the single largest industrial contributors to this crisis. These plants are major producers of nitrogen oxides, which combine with other pollutants to form ground-level ozone, one of the most noxious parts of the smog brew. Sulphur dioxide, which contributes to the yellow haze that hangs over Southern Ontario is a major factor in causing acid-rain damage to lakes, rivers and forests.
Mercury can, in even tiny amounts, have a devastating impact on the human nervous system, especially for children and the unborn. Exposure to mercury can cause brain and kidney damage and even death. Mercury exposure has also been linked to impairment of children's reasoning skills.
Lead, which is also particularly harmful to children can cause brain damage, impair growth, damage kidneys and cause learning and behavioral problems. See the lead story of Chandigarh below, which may be reenacted around Chamalapura.
Heavy metals, including cadmium and chromium are known cancer-causing toxins. The pollution coming out of Raichur's giant smokestacks is the equivalent of the pollution produced by 3.3 million cars. Its emissions contribute not only to the choking smog that lies over Raichur every summer, but also to
the devastating impacts of global climate change and to the well-known problems caused by acid rain.
Bangalore continues to grow rapidly and coal combustion would become the dominant fuel source for electricity(sic) in a business as usual scenario. Naturally occurring radioactive species released by coal combustion are accumulating in the environment along with minerals such as aluminum, iron, lead, magnesium, titanium, boron, chromium, mercury, arsenic, silicon, calcium, chlorine, lead and sodium. Add to this the problems of acid rain and so the long term problems of these released materials will one day be of such significance that they should not be ignored now .
Moreover only 2% of the energy in the coal is converted to useful goods and services. The remaining is wasted blazing and heating up the globe causing glaciers to melt and converting perennial rivers like the Ganga to seasonal rivers. Also the sea level rise will displace millions to high rises in Bangalore, where they will perish without water!
NOTE THAT THIS IS ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY! As shown above!. Kanadigas arise and Mysoorannu Ulisi!
Chamalapura Power Station may sell 300,000 tonnes (perhaps 40 percent of Chamatkara Power Station's annual ash production) to Cement Industries in India by 2014/15 for use in the concrete industry, and some may be sold for ceramic, paint and insulation products. This means over 3 million tonnes of ash may be produced during 2014/15, perhaps in Karnataka alone. Based on an average of 85% being fly ash, this equates to Chamalapura and other stations producing over 2.5 million tonnes of fly ash. Subtracting the 300,000 tonnes sold, and allowing for other sales such as ceramic production(Oh! My! My flooring are ceramic tile, and my house is of the flysh bricks!: God save me Chamundeshwari) there could be millions of tonnes of poisonous fly ash inadequately stored at Chamalapura and other stations proposed.
Imagination:
1. Aerial photograph of Chamalapura Power Station.
Note the large white areas which consist of the dumped poisonous fly ash. Photo by P. Bhima.
2. Aerial photograph of Chamalapura Power Station.
Close-up view of the electricity generation plant. Photo by Alan Johnstone.
THE END OF IMAGINATION IS REALITY!
THE CHANDIGARH LEAD STORY will be repeated in Mysore!
CHANDIYA KATHE: There is a trebling of the risk of lead uptake in plants in polluted areas compared to a control area least polluted: The risk of uptake in plants compared to the substratum like the soil is a maximum of 2.6. These are true measurements- whole earth epidemiological evidence not to be ignored for Chamalapura and others. How about mercury pollution and arsenic? All these together with radioactive internal body contamination may result in synergistic deaths - omnicide!
The toxicity of lead in plants depicts similar behaviour to internal contamination of living beings (ex: humans).
Thus see Figure RRPCPO: Two opposing effects are seen in both the uptake of lead into mosses and of pregnancy outcomes in India in response to internal radionuclide contamination:
One effect is the toxicity due to lead accumulation in nucleii of the cells of plants and the other is the response of the cell to combat it. This is a series of biphasic responses as the lead dose from the substratum increases. Similarly in humans, the deposition of energy in the cell as the Sr90 radionucleii( and others) decay causes induction of cell repair/mutation effects and the battle between these two opposing effects causes a biphasic response. In such a chaotic setting, it is wise to apply the precautionary principle. And note that as the dose increases, of highly toxic lead due to coal fired plants or the release of radionuclides by both coal fired plants and nuclear power plants, the health of all life adversely degenerates with time. This is illustrated by lead poisoning, where above a certain limit(about 46% in lead in mosses) the living being exerts no more resistance to the toxicity. The precautionary principle means that when we are unsure about the risks of a certain industrial process we should not allow it to proceed until we can be sure that it is safe.
For a financial audit of health effects see http://usenoelectricitytocool.blogspot.in/
The health bill is many times the profit from Chamalapura Thermal Power Station of even the best design: An excerpt:
ONE TONNE OF DIRTY COAL....
One ton of dirty coal might bring Rs 750 in profit. Weigh this against what a ton of coal costs in ill-health: Rs. 1250 in medical care for the inhabitants of the bleak(remember Neiveli lignite Town) cancer-ridden mining towns- where the sky, my Chinese friend informs, is never blue. Now just get the numbers for Chamalapura Coal Fired Enslavement: 1.5 men per MW for mining(Ref 2): 1000 MW: 1500 men, 7500 total family members. Coal used per year 2.555 Million Tons.
In line with the requirement of the Precautionary Principle applied into the far future, we must integrate the effects including those of the flyash products but also of the heavy metals on the entire living community not only in the regions of the mining communities but also what happens to the entire eco-resources some 100 km radius around the Chamalapura location of the power plant.We must also factor in all the effects of the global warming including massive displacement. This must also extend to several generations some 16000 years or more into the future because of the long lived internal radioactive contaminants(ex. Raduim 226). Assuming some 7500 person units like in the mining communities each with a group health care cost of Rs 1250/y,
Total medicare costs/y=
2.555*7500*1250*10^6=Rs 23.9531 trillion(million million)/year.
Total profits/year=2.555*750*10^6= Rs 1916250000/year.
Thus the medicare/health care of the entire living system costs 12500 times the profits every year! This is the inequality of the benefits, that the slave trade represents!
A wise use of Chamalapura
A forest with 20kg/m^2 dry biomass density over Chamalapura would mean at 1000 MW/km^2 at least, some 13600 MW equivalent of power flow through the forest. Thus the forest commons will give at this rate a whole set of products for all time, preserving its fertility, and giving pure air, water and a diversity of life- beautiful! How can a fertile area like Chamalapura be used to produce and use power at just 4 MW per km^2, that too only till the life time of the plant? Industrial production of goods and services overall is just about 20 percent of legitimate goods and services. The overall efficiency of the thermal plant is just 40%, fuel to electricity delivered at most. Thus the end use efficiency is just .4 x .2*100= 8%.This is for a full year. But a plant use for 50% gives 4% efficiency of resource use! This a use of 2500 MW power in coal to 4% = 100 MW actually used. The remaining 1250MW-100MW=1150MW of coal will set the world ablaze because it would have been combusted! No wonder the arctic is melting, the glaciers are melting and sea levels rising and climate is a changing! The entire GDP growth of the world is being annulled because the policy makers have externalised these costs! Reforest! That should be call of the people’s co-operatives that may be formed in Chamalapura!
The following Table gives 3000 acres converted to hectares then to sq.km^2 and then to Megawatts of power flow!
Note that the 3000 acres land use for coal also includes land used for mining which gets worse as time progresses.
Thus the energy audit of fertile land(multi product wholesome services forever!) use by coal fired power plants is adverse, the coal fired power plant is a net consumer of energy.
And regarding the multi input multi output permanent wholesome health of forests over man-made disasters like coal fired power or nuclear power see
http://practicethevedas.blogspot.in/
And now Kudgi. See
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/516135/kudgi-power-plant-ktaka-commissioned.html
Kudgi and all that we do to minimise climate change effects.
Aided and abetted by sleepers we are hostage to modern
civilization’s self-destructive ways.
We are having a century of experience with thermal power
plants which together with theft of electricity, and theft by energy guzzling
specialist end use regimes we burn coal so the final efficiency of delivered
services is 1 to 5 percent. 99% to 95% of the coal is uselessly wasted. Thus
the useful power generated from Kudgi will not be 4000 MW but just 40 MW to 200
MW! Piushji, not yet gone are the days when you pollute places with particulate
matter of 250 micrograms per cubic meter
of 2.5 micrometers diameter like its happening in India’s capital where the
Gujarat modeller Modi hardly stays! And you have the shameless attitude to
enjoy building such modern civilization for us? Have you any idea of the wasted
mined monster? I will tell my fellow citizens to take umbrage at the govt’s
bureau of energy efficiency to allow such idiocy. 4000 MW of coal fired
electricity at 6000 hours per year is 24
million megawatthours or 24 billion kilowatthours. At 2000 kWh per ton of coal, we
require 12 million tons(2240 lbs/ton) of coal per year of which 11.4 million
tons go to heat up the atmosphere with just Kudgi!
