[emiliobumachar]

+1. Just to add an explanation, they do so by taking naturally occurring radioactive particles that would otherwise remain locked deep into the Earth, and putting them in the atmosphere.

This should be common knowledge, but almost no one knows it.

[gameswithgo]

how does the rate of radioactivity added to the air compare to farming? Plants with deep roots also extract radioactivity from the ground and then we eat it.

this is a serious question, which of course ties into the concept of "banana equivalent dose", which helps to contextualize claims about radioactivity.

[mannykannot]

For one thing, plant life is merely repeatedly recycling the mineral content of an only slowly-varying topsoil, while coal-burning is adding new sources.