Coal and Nuclear Fuels

I. MINING AND PROCESSING OF THE FUEL

A single electrical generating plant producing 380,000-kw requires a total of one million gallons of oil per day; a large 1.2 million-kw coal-fired plant uses fuel at the rate of 8000 tons of coal -- or about one hundred railroad cars full -- every day.

Coal beds are no longer sought, for most of them have been located and only need to be explored further to determine their rank, ash content, continuity, thickness and depth over an area where mining is contemplated. Advances in the mining of coal have been considerable in recent years. In most underground mines today continuous mining machines are used. These use draglines with buck

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of more than one thousand miles now planned. If construction and maintenance energy costs of a railroad are to be charged largely or mainly to coal haulage, the coal slurry pipeline is a more efficient system of transportation, comparable to the natural gas pipeline. Such pipeline transport costs between 60 and 70% of the price of unit-train haulage. The amounts of fissionable materials needed for nuclear power are much smaller, and they can be transported by rail or by truck, generally specially-shielded if there is any danger of radiation. 4. COST Coal is seen as having a great potential for contributing to the needs of high energy society. It is more versatile today as a fuel source than when it was the mainstay of power in the world during the Industrial Revolution. Coal can be converted into gaseous or liquid fuels that can be transported by tanker and pipeline or used near the conversion plants. It can be burned in power plants near the mine, and the resultant electricity can be transmitted hundreds of miles over ultra-high voltage lines. It can also provide benefits by operating in place of the rapidly depleting reserves of oil and gas. Unfortunately, the tendency to ignore coal over the past few years is now
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Approximate Word count = 3249
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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