Fracking in America

There has been lots of debate about the appropriateness and safety of fracking in the UK. Fracking is the using of powerful water jets, containing chemicals, into rock layers in order to drive out contained hydrochemical gases. These can then be burned to generate energy (reducing reliance on imported oil and gas). Much of the current debate has concerned the impact of the fracking on the contamination of water courses. Fracking is much more common in the USA, a much bigger country with its populations often at a lower density than here (but it's a bone of contention in the US elections). What is new, is that Harvard University has used recordings taken between 2001 and 2017 from 157 radiation monitoring stations (the stations were set up in the cold war). The readings were then mapped to fracking sites across that country. The closest they could actually get to a fracking site was 20k (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/13/airborne-radioactivity-increases-downwind-of-fracking-study-finds). They basically found, that sites with 100 wells upwind, showed a 7% increase in radioactivity (mainly particles of Uranium released from the rocks). Some sites, actually have 600 wells upwind of the location. It was found that the radioactivity released, was much greater than that seen with conventional oil and gas extractions. The conclusion is that people should not panic but should recognise that there is a health risk (especially for young children) associated with living downwind of fracking sites. The nature of the rock strata, in which fracking is carried out will have a powerful effect on the release of radioactivity. Things may be different in the UK but the issue should certainly be looked at.