City of Brass

City of Brass

Tennessee coal mine disaster

posted by Aziz Poonawalla

Talk about a lump of coal in your stocking for Christmas:

A disaster that occurred early Monday morning has ruined the holidays
for some residents of Knoxville, Tennessee. A retaining wall at the
Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston coal-fired power plant collapsed,
spewing 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash across Tennessee.

According to the TVA, 400 acres of land are submerged 6-feet deep in
the toxic substance
. The sludge that burst out of the holding pond for
power plant waste ripped an entire home from its foundations and
flooded 11 other homes in the area.

Fortunately,
no injuries related to the disaster have been reported so far. However,
the situation is expected to worsen. Fly ash is a highly toxic
substance that contains mercury, lead, and arsenic. A report from last year also states that fly ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste

It’s shocking just how dangerous coal mining really is. Not just for the miners but also for the public at large. Compared to nuclear energy, coal is worse in every respect. The design of modern nuclear reactors is nothing like the old style Three Mile Island or Chernobyl type. Modern pebble-bed reactors are physically incapable of melting down, and produce useful energy byproducts like pure hydrogen as well, There’s a great article in Wired about how the Chinese are aggressively pushing small-scale pebble bed reactor technology, which if deployed on a large enough scale could make coal mines obsolete.



You Might Also Like...
Previous Posts

American barbarism, civilization, and decadence (and Star Trek)
I came across a lengthy excerpt online from the book, "The Next Hundred Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century" by George Friedman and found it quite insightful. I say this as someone who probably is indeed an American barbarian by the definition of the passage; I do believe that there do exist u

posted 3:11:36pm May. 15, 2013 | read full post »

Bishnu Shrestha and the 40 thieves (and one khukuri)
This is a khukuri, a curved Nepalese-style blade issued as standard equipment to members of the Gurkha, which are famed Nepali units of the Indian Army (and the British Army of India before Independence): [caption id="attachment_1982" align="aligncenter" width="600"] khukuri knife of the Gurkha[/

posted 9:56:17am May. 08, 2013 | read full post »

Muslims in Bradford, UK rally to save synagogue
This is one of those great stories that often gets overlooked by the mainstream press and deliberately ignored by the Islamophobes: With only just over thirty members and an extravagant Grade II listed Moorish building, the tiny Jewish community of Bradford have for many years been in despair abo

posted 11:47:45am May. 04, 2013 | read full post »

Obama still wants to close Guantanamo #Gitmo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vy-fsgXR4jw From today's press conference: 8:15 AM PT: Bill Plante of CBS asks about the Guantanamo hunger strike. Obama says he still wants to close it. "It's not necessary to keep America safe. It's expensive. It's inefficient. It hu

posted 11:44:18am Apr. 30, 2013 | read full post »

open-source, lone wolf terrorism: different ideologies, shared methodologies
To summarize what is known at this time, the main suspects for the Boston marathon bombing are two brothers who immigrated from Chechnya to America years ago and have gro

posted 1:34:11pm Apr. 19, 2013 | read full post »

Advertisement
Comments read comments(5)
post a comment
Ashley

posted May 14, 2009 at 5:47 pm


That is SO SAD!!!



report abuse
 

escorts female

posted June 13, 2010 at 11:12 am


Rather interesting blog to track it in my view. BTW, why haven’t you you submit it to social bookmarks? This can bring rather big traffic to this page.



report abuse
 

brunettegirls

posted June 19, 2010 at 10:28 pm


Really cool article u have here. I’d like to read more concerning such theme. Thank you for posting that material.
Ava TORRES



report abuse
 

Bella Swenson

posted January 20, 2011 at 3:57 pm


Rather nice place you’ve got here. Thank you for it. I like such topics and anything connected to this matter. I would like to read more soon.
Bella Swenson
female escorts in new york



report abuse
 

Bella Benedict

posted March 9, 2011 at 10:25 pm


Pretty nice blog you’ve got here. Thanks the author for it. I like such topics and anything connected to them. I definitely want to read more soon.
Bella Benedict
milano escort accompagnatrice



report abuse
 

Post a Comment

By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.





Report as Inappropriate

You are reporting this content because it violates the Terms of Service.

All reported content is logged for investigation.