So you think nuclear is safe eh?

ravenseye · Guest

10 Things You Should Know About Uranium Mining

1.“Exploration crews searching for uranium will receive radiation exposure from uranium and its associated radioactive decay products in the drill core cuttings”

2. “Whether or not [uranium] mining is conducted in open pits or underground, there are environmental health hazards and impacts to workers and the general public that need to be considered. These include radiation hazards from radon gas, radium, thorium, and non-radioactive contamination from dust and heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and nickel” (Health Canada, Environment and workplace health. Canadian Handbook on Health Impact Assessment. Volume 4, Chapter 5.4 Uranium Mining. hc-sc.gc.ca ). search for Uranium.

3. Radiation is one of the few exposures for which the cause-effect relationship with childhood leukemia has been established (Belson et al. 2007). Children are 20% more sensitive to radioactivity because their cells are actively dividing.

4. Uranium mining creates risks to workers and the community in several ways: through radioactive dust and radon released from exploring, milling, and tailing piles. (Stephens and Ahern 2001. institute for Environment and Development. World Business Council for Sustainable Development)

5. Uranium enters the body by ingestion or inhaling airborne uranium – contain dust particles or aerosols. Uranium is absorbed from the intestine or lungs, enters the bloodstream, and is rapidly deposited in the tissues, predominately kidney and bone excreted in the urine. (Taylor and Taylor 1997)

6. “Inhalation of radon and radon progeny [daughter products] lead to radiation exposure of the bronchial tissue of the lung with a resultant risk of cancer” (Health Canada: Environmental and Workplace Health. Exposure Guidelines for Residential Indoor Air Quality Section 4.B.2 Radon). Risks of lung cancer in uranium workers, who have been exposed to higher levels of radon, or to longer periods of low exposure, are 2 to 5 times higher than unexposed workers. (Stephens and Ahern 2001. Institute of Environment and Development. World Business Council for Sustainable Development).

7. “The current Canadian guideline for residential radon levels is two to four times weaker than European and Australian guidelines, more than five times weaker than American guidelines, and more than three times weaker than the World Health Organization recommendation” (www.davidsuzuki.org).

8. Residents living near uranium mining operation have a higher risk of genetic damage than people living further away. (Au et al 1998). “radon is the second most significant cause of lung cancer after smoking tobacco, and accounts for approximately 9 to 15 percent of lung cancer deaths” (www.davidsuzuki.org).

9. Miners exposed to uranium are at increased risk of various degrees of genetic damage. . (Stephens and Ahern 2001. Institute of Environment and Development. World Business Council for Sustainable Development).

10. Uranium mining is a federal responsibility, but according to the British Columbia Medical Association to a Royal Commission on Uranium Mining, “the Atomic Energy Control Board is unfit to regulate uranium mining”.

Terms and Definitions
Genotoxic
A term used to describe toxic agents that can cause mutations in genes (DNA). Known genotoxins include X-rays and other forms of radiation, some synthetic chemicals, and viruses. Since genes are passed down to the next generation, the damage induced by genotoxins can be inherited.
Mutations Sudden changes in the genetic material of a cell. Mutations occur naturally at a low rate but may increase as a result of radiation, some chemicals, and viruses. Some mutations are beneficial but the majority of mutations are harmful.

Radiation
A stream of particles, alpha, beta, and/or gamma particles, from a radioactive source like X-ray or uranium.

Uranium A radioactive element and is the mineral uraninite which also contains radium, thorium, polonium, lead and helium.
Plutonium-239, Radium-224, Radium-226, Radium- 228, Radon-222 and Thorium-232 and their decay products.
These are classified as known carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). X-rays and gamma radiation are also classed as known carcinogens by the IARC.

[b]Major Nuclear Power Plant Accidents[/b]

Though not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, this list shows there is a very real risk associated with nuclear energy.

December 12, 1952
A partial meltdown of a reactor's uranium core at the Chalk River plant near Ottawa, Canada, resulted after the accidental removal of four control rods. Although millions of gallons of radioactive water poured into the reactor, there were no injuries.

October 1957
Fire destroyed the core of a plutonium-producing reactor at Britain's Windscale nuclear complex - since renamed Sellafield - sending clouds of radioactivity into the atmosphere. An official report said the leaked radiation could have caused dozens of cancer deaths in the vicinity of Liverpool.

Winter 1957-'58
A serious accident occurred during the winter of 1957-58 near the town of Kyshtym in the Urals. A Russian scientist who first reported the disaster estimated that hundreds died from radiation sickness.

January 3, 1961
Three technicians died at a U.S. plant in Idaho Falls in an accident at an experimental reactor.

July 4, 1961
The captain and seven crew members died when radiation spread through the Soviet Union's first nuclear-powered submarine. A pipe in the control system of one of the two reactors had ruptured.

October 5, 1966
The core of an experimental reactor near Detroit, Mich., melted partially when a sodium cooling system failed.

January 21, 1969
A coolant malfunction from an experimental underground reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, releases a large amount of radiation into a cave, which was then sealed.

December 7, 1975
At the Lubmin nuclear power complex on the Baltic coast in the former East Germany, a short-circuit caused by an electrician's mistake started a fire. Some news reports said there was almost a meltdown of the reactor core.

March 28, 1979
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, America's worst nuclear accident occurred. A partial meltdown of one of the reactors forced the evacuation of the residents after radioactive gas escaped into the atmosphere.

February 11, 1981
Eight workers are contaminated when more than 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant fluid leaks into the contaminant building of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah 1 plant in Tennessee.

April 25, 1981
Officials said around 45 workers were exposed to radioactivity during repairs to a plant at Tsuruga, Japan.

April 26, 1986
The world's worst nuclear accident occurred after an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It released radiation over much of Europe. Thirty-one people died iin the immediate aftermath of the explosion. Hundreds of thousands of residents were moved from the area and a similar number are belived to have suffered from the effects of radiation exposure.

March 24, 1992
At the Sosnovy Bor station near St. Petersburg, Russia, radioactive iodine escaped into the atmosphere. A loss of pressure in a reactor channel was the source of the accident.

November 1992
In France's most serious nuclear accident, three workers were contaminated after entering a nuclear particle accelerator in Forbach without protective clothing. Executives were jailed in 1993 for failing to take proper safety measures.

November 1995
Japan's Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor leaked two to three tons of sodium from the reactor's secondary cooling system.

March 1997
The state-run Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation reprocessing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, contaminated at least 35 workers with minor radiation after a fire and explosion occurred.

September 30, 1999
Another accident at the uranium processing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, plant exposed fifty-five workers to radiation. More than 300,000 people living near the plant were ordered to stay indoors. Workers had been mixing uranium with nitric acid to make nuclear fuel, but had used too much uranium and set off the accidental uncontrolled reaction.

[b]
Delayed Effects and The Latency Period[/b]

Cancers and leukemias brought about by exposure to ionizing radiation are not observable at all until years later. For this reason, such diseases are called "delayed effects". Other effects which are not life-threatening, such as cataracts and genetic damage, are included in the category of delayed effects.

The evidence for other possible delayed effects of radiation exposure, such as premature aging or non-specific life-shortening, while frequently discussed in the scientific literature, is more controversial.
Cancer is the most commonly-cited example of a delayed effect. In the case of the German children given radium-224 injections (see B.8), bone cancers began to appear about four years after the initial injections. Shortly thereafter, in 1951, the injections were stopped. Since radium-224 has a half-life of only 2.64 days, we know that the offending material was gone from the children's bodies within a few months of the final injections. Nevertheless, new cancers continued to appear for two decades afterwards, illustrating the delayed nature of the carcinogenic effect.

There is a certain period of time that apparently must elapse before the first radiation-induced cancers begin to occur. This minimum waiting time is called the "latency period". Once the latency period is past, the cancer rate increases and remains elevated not just for one or two years but for decades.

Length of Latency Period

Each type of radiation-induced cancer has its own latency period. Among the dial painters, the first bone cancers appeared less than five years after initial ingestion of radium paint, whereas the first head cancers did not begin to appear until almost twenty years afterwards. Both types of cancer have continued to occur ever since, with new cases emerging more than half a century after the practice of licking brushes was discontinued. However, the excess in bone cancers has gradually diminished over time, while the excess in head cancers has not. The reason for this difference is unknown.

In these cases, of course, even though no new radium has been ingested, the skeleton continues to be irradiated by long-lived deposits of radium-226 stored in the bones. Moreover, radon gas (radon-222) continues to migrate into the head. It is therefore impossible to know how long the cancer incidence would persist if the irradiation of the tissues were stopped.

This difficulty does not arise in the case of more than 14,000 British patients whose spines, from 1935 to 1955, were exposed to therapeutic x-rays as a treatment for ankylosing spondilitis. Within a few years, an elevated incidence of leukemia became evident among these patients. The excess peaked about five years after exposure, then declined, but excess leukemias were still being observed more than fifteen years after exposure.

Several other types of radiation-induced cancer have also appeared in this rather large group of people. After fifty years of follow-up, it appears that the most common types are lung cancer and breast cancer, but there have also been smaller increases in cancers of the colon, pancreas, stomach, bladder, lymph nodes, prostate, esophagus, bone and brain. Such cancers generally have a latency period of ten to twenty years or more.

In summary, it appears that (1) bone cancers and leukemias have relatively short latency periods, with the excess incidence peaking in about five years and then declining towards "normal" incidence rates after about two decades; whereas (2) other cancers have latency periods of ten years or more (in some cases more than twenty years), and the magnitude of the excess lasts for a much longer time, showing less likelihood to decline after peaking.