Coal & the Potential for Radioactive Leachate

The occurrence of radioactive Isotopes such as Uranium and it's daughter radioactive isotopes such as Thorium 234 found in Powder River Basin (PRB) coal brings up questions that are due serious consideration in assessing the advisability of the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal coal-port project at Cherry Point. As author John McPhee explains in book on North American geology, Annals of the Former World, the uranium found in the PRB came to be there through a combination of oxidation and then migration in groundwater over many millions of years. When uranium oxidizes, it becomes soluble in water. Over the ages, vast amounts of groundwater percolated through this coal carrying a small percentage of dissolved uranium. It has been found that the organic materials in coal have a greater attraction for oxygen than does uranium. The result of this is that the coal pulled the oxygen ions from the uranium, thus causing the uranium to precipitate out in the coal deposits--eventually accumulating deposits rich enough to be profitably mined. As a result of this, Wyoming is known to have the most extensive deposits of Uranium in any of the United States.

The critical questions raised by this process involve what will happen to the radioactive isotopes in this coal when it is mined, loaded into rail cars and hauled over a thousand miles to the proposed Cherry Point terminal. Among different factors involved in this equation and questions that must be answered are these:

~Powder River Basin coal is known to be very crumbly—physically breaking down into small pieces. The significance of this being that the smaller the pieces are, the greater amount of it is available to exposure to air and it's free oxygen. (about 20% of the atmosphere) The coal is to be transported in open-topped railroad cars and it is reasonable to expect that in their journey air will circulate between the particles of coal, quite likely exposing it to a constant flow of fresh oxygen molecules. The first question this brings up is: Does this cause the uranium to then oxidize and once again become soluble?

~Another factor to be considered is this: It will undoubtedly rain and snow on this coal during its journey in uncovered cars—especially when it has crossed over the Cascade range into Western Washington. What will happen to the water that precipitates, and then percolates through this coal? It is imperative for us to know: Has uranium in this coal oxidized uranium and thus become soluble? If so, then does water percolating through it dissolve and carry U-235 and/or any other radioactive isotopes with it? What then becomes of this potentially-uranium-contaminated water? Does it then drain out of the coal cars onto the rail-bed where it may then contaminate soils, surface waters and possibly even groundwater?

The amount of PRB coal proposed to be transported to the Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point is many millions of tons over many years. It rains a whole lot west of the Cascade range. We need to know if the cumulative effect of this water and any pollutants, both radioactive and/or chemical that it may contain, draining out of these coal cars would constitute a threat to ourselves and/or our environment.