A 700 megawatt coal station needs about three times as much land as a nuclear power plant of the same size. The nuclear plant uses about 100 tonnes of fuel a year, compared to about 2 million tonnes for the coal-fired plant. Coal plants also produce more than 5 million tonnes of airborne wastes in the form of ash, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide. Nuclear power plants produce 100 tonnes of spent fuel each year and about a thousand tonnes of uranium mine tailings. One fuel bundle, which is about the size of a fireplace log, supplies the electrical needs of a home for 100 years.
All natural substances contain radioactive material.
Beer contains 13 times as much radioactivity as water discharged from a nuclear power plant, and typical salad oil has a radioactivity level 500 times as large. Even our bones contain radioactive material.