Chungnam Quantifies the 'Adverse Impact' of Coal Power Plants on Ultrafine Dust Levels

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A research result quantifying the adverse effects of thermal power plants on the occurrence of fine dust has been announced.

Chungnam Province stated at the final report meeting of the third year of the research project on the climate and environmental impact around thermal power plants that thermal power plants affect the average concentration of fine dust in the region by up to 11% per hour and up to 2.44% per day.

This conclusion was derived by analyzing fine dust observation values and modeling results from February to March of last year.

The province provided this atmospheric environment information to local residents through a responsive web system (partly by mail).

Previously, to fulfill local residents' right to know about environmental issues, the province was the first nationwide to build and operate a 'responsive web.' This system provides real-time living area air quality information, such as the status of daily average concentration exceeding atmospheric environment standards.

Through the research project, the province developed a method to investigate fugitive dust emissions from outdoor coal yards and ash handling facilities, enabling the derivation of fugitive dust emissions that had not been captured in national air pollutant emission statistics.

Based on this, the province plans to operate a fugitive dust warning system related to fugitive dust generation around thermal power plants and use it as a basis for interpreting the scale of damage.

A provincial official explained, "It was difficult to explain the damage caused by thermal power generation numerically until now," but added, "However, through this research, we were able to confirm how thermal power plants affect air quality, including fine dust."

He also said, "The province will continue to collect and accumulate survey and research data to actively utilize it for climate change response and energy transition policies."

Meanwhile, the province plans to start research on the climate and environmental impact around thermal power plants from 2016 and complete it by 2022.

The third-year research project was conducted by the Chungnam Research Institute West Coast Climate and Environment Research Center, Daejeon University, and Kangwon National University, focusing on three main research areas: atmospheric environment information construction, air quality measurement and analysis, and ecological environment monitoring.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.