Just had to mention that a few of my extended family members died terrible deaths (cancer) from water contamination due to tailings from uranium mining in the Four Corners area.
Contamination wise it's worse "mining" uranium in the US than in the Canadian, Australian, Uzbek and other high density deposits.
Much of the Cold War era US domestic uranium "mines" were leach operations to remove low density uranium from large disperse areas underground.. somewhat like fracking in that an agent is pumped down a well in order to leach through the soil and carry uranium in solution to extraction wells from which the uranium is then removed.
This resulted in the agent and leached materials being carried into ground water supplies, large tailing ponds of water + chemicals, etc.
There's more waste per kilo of unprocessed uranium extracted with leach operations than with hard rock high grade operations in Uzbekistan and Australias Olympic dam.
There also seemed to be scant regard paid to the health and safety of the Navajo in the US .. one of those "not our problem" attitudes.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 20.5 ms ] threadMuch of the Cold War era US domestic uranium "mines" were leach operations to remove low density uranium from large disperse areas underground.. somewhat like fracking in that an agent is pumped down a well in order to leach through the soil and carry uranium in solution to extraction wells from which the uranium is then removed.
This resulted in the agent and leached materials being carried into ground water supplies, large tailing ponds of water + chemicals, etc.
There's more waste per kilo of unprocessed uranium extracted with leach operations than with hard rock high grade operations in Uzbekistan and Australias Olympic dam.
There also seemed to be scant regard paid to the health and safety of the Navajo in the US .. one of those "not our problem" attitudes.