Uranium - Development a Sham

What is this ore called Uranium? Why is almost everyone keen to be the Agent of UCIL? Why is it that, even the educated, knowing its danger to life, try to fool the illiterate with deception? This shows their greed for power and money.

I never knew any thing about Physics but since my inception into social work I had to know about Uranium in lay man terms. Uranium is said to be the heaviest metal. To extract this material, sulphuric acid has to be used and from an approximate one tonne of this rock, only 2 pounds of uranium can be extracted. The rest is waste which in fact is 85% still radioactive.

Whenever uranium disintegrates, it turns into a material called Protactinium which is radioactive and this in turn, turns to Thorium (Emits Gamma Rays). Then Thorium turns into Radium which then turns to Radon gas which is also radioactive and produces the Radon Daughters which are also radioactive. These multiply and are decay products.

An early suspicion of the danger of radiation from Radon and its daughters came from Europe where Uranium and Radium were being mined. In one district where concentration of Radon daughters were very high and ventilation very poor about half of the deaths among the miners were from cancer. It was also assumed that the early miners in America had a similar exposure to Radon daughters. Studies by the US Public Health Service later indicated that the Radon daughters can be a health hazard, in the form of Lung Cancer.

In open pit mining, mines are dug and the water collected in the pits has to be let out into the hills and streams, and in the process, some of the sand that we use for construction of houses, contain Radon Gas too.

Slow intake of this Radon gas can cause cancer of the lungs, breast cancer, and Uranium can cause deformity in the human body besides causing

The half life of Thorium which is a gamma emitter is 80,000 years, and that of Radium, an alpha emitter is 1600 years. So the present radioactive elements will go on increasing and one can just imagine what an epidemic it would be with all the waste from tailing ponds that will multiply for thousands of years if the UCIL is allowed to go ahead with the proposed mining.

Cancer cases among Aboriginal people living near Australia’s biggest uranium mines is doubling, a study by the Federal Governments leading Indigenous Research body shows, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, of the 23rd November 2006. There have also been many Uranium Tailing disasters, in Australia, Canada and the United States, even though these countries are armed with the most “State of the Art” tailing dams.

According to the AFP news, a French physicist Bruno Chareyron of France’s CRIIRAD laboratory, which measures radioactivity in the environment, has joined representatives of indigenous peoples from Africa, Australia and the United States to send US lawmakers a stark warning about the dangers of uranium mining. He spoke in a conference in Washington DC in the month of Feb 2009 where he stated that that he wants the US lawmakers to understand that uranium mining is highly pollutant and that there is presently no scientific answer to the question of radioactive waste containment. He mentioned that the information given by mining companies is not entirely reliable.

It seems that the UCIL too, is bluffing the people. They, through their agents, the Government, publicize that they would like to develop the area at Kylleng Pyndensohiong Mawtahbah. When you have a look at the map where uranium is found in the country there are many indications of where Uranium is available. The pertinent question here is, why mine in the tribal areas of the North East?

To say that people from outside can not be effected is wrong as the toxic waste and gases carry hundreds of miles and also contaminate water bodies. .

One can not blame the people from the West who have become frustrated as there has truly been no development in their areas and the roads there are pathetic if there are any.

It is true and sad and we all learn through mistakes, but united we can fight all this without having to sell off our land to UCIL who will leave the area high and dry, when they have replenished their thirst for greed and we will be left with the toxic waste for thousands of years, that will cut short the life of our beloved children. Short term monetary gain will leave us with long-term deadly waste for generations to come.
Agnes Kgarshiing

http://www.easternpanorama.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=769:uranium-development-a-sham-&catid=45:web-special&Itemid=24