• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.472-486
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• 2015

More than 8M tons of coal ashes are generated from coal-fired thermal power plants every year in Korea. Excluding the recycled portion (Current recycling rate: approximately 70%), all of the generated coal ashes end up in coastal landfills. Currently, the difficulties faced in establishing new ash treatment fields are attributed to the concerns raised over the environmental impacts caused by the landfills at individual plant facilities. Given the number of coal-fired thermal power plants to be built in the future (reflected in the 7th Basic Plan for Long-term Electricity Supply and Demand), building new ash treatment fields or seeking a new treatment plan seems unavoidable. Based upon a review of coal ash and its management, this study concluded that the most effective and fundamental strategy to minimize the environmental impacts resulting from coal ash landfills is to avoid constructing new coal-fired powerplants and furthermore, suggests that the practice of beneficial use and recycling the produced coal wastes should be encouraged.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.563-573
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• 2017

Coal ash is generated from coal-fired thermal power plants every year. The remaining quantity of coal ash ends up in the landfills except for the recycled portion, and the existing ash pond capacity is limited almost. Currently, the difficulties are faced in building a new ash treatment plant because of the concerns about the environmental impacts of landfills at individual plant facilities. In terms of minimizing the environmental impact, the recycling and effective uses of coal ash are recognized as urgent issues to be challenged. Accordingly, this study examines the obstacles in expanding the recycling of the coal ash in South Korea and proposes solutions based on the case study analysis. The analysis results are as follows: 1) specific recycling guidelines and standards are required to be established in accordance with the contact medium (soil, ground water, surface water and sea water) and the chemical. 2) by providing the recognition environmentally safe in recycling the coal ash, transparency in establishing the planning stages and active communication with the community through promotion and research are essentially needed. 3) practical support system is required to encourage the power plant companies to use the coal ash as beneficial use.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.331-338
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• 2006

Coal combustion fly ash, which has a high available Si content and alkaline pH, was selected as a potential source of soil amendment in this study. Two field experiments were carried out to evaluate the possibility of heavy metal accumulation in silt loam (Pyeongtaeg series) and loamy sand (Nagdong series) of rice (Oryza sativa) paddy soils to which 0, 40, 80, and $120Mg\;ha^{-1}$ of fly ash were added. Rice yields increased significantly with fly ash application and the highest rice yields were achieved following the addition of around $90Mg\;ha^{-1}$ fly ash. Fly ash increased the soil pH but did not increase heavy metal uptakes of rice and heavy metal concentration in soils, due to very low concentration of heavy metals in the selected fly ash. Labile fraction of heavy metals (exchangeable + acidic fraction) was scarcely contained and most of them were stable and unavailable form (oxidizable and residual fraction). In conclusion fly ash could be a good supplement to an inorganic soil amendments without heavy metal contamination in paddy soils.