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The Canadian Press: Wells in southern N.B. town have unacceptable levels of arsenic and uranium
Uranium Supply Decline Clouds Nuclear Power's Future | LiveScience
Declining uranium supplies suggest nuclear power is not the magic bullet some might have hoped for to replace fossil fuels.
By burning fossil fuels, conventional power plants and vehicles factor in to global warming by emitting carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat from the sun.
Advocates of nuclear power suggest it could help prevent global warming, since nuclear plants generate electricity without releasing carbon dioxide.
But critics of nuclear power have for decades linked it with dangers such as radioactive waste and nuclear weapons. There also remain fears that nuclear plants could undergo catastrophes such as a meltdown, as seen with Chernobyl, or a terrorist attack.
Now it seems that mining uranium, which nuclear power depends on, could be even less environmentally friendly and more costly than critics say, according to a new analysis led by Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer at Monash University in Australia.
On average, supplies of high-quality uranium ore have been steadily declining worldwide for the past 50 years, and will likely to continue to wane in the mid- to long-term, Mudd said. Any new uranium deposit is likely to be deeper and harder to extract, and getting uranium from lower-quality deposits involves digging up and refining more ore, according to their analysis of government and industry reports.
Outrage over plans to extract uranium ore from the Grand Canyon - Times Online
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It was apparently formed in supernovae about 6.6 billion years ago.
Its slow radioactive decay in the Earth’s mantle heats the planet
Stop uranium mining until study is done on impact: coalition
Uranium exploration should be suspended in Ontario until its impact on health, the environment and aboriginal land rights is properly addressed, said a report released yesterday by the Community Coalition Against Mining Uranium.
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Ontario's Mining Act, passed in 1868 and changed little since, has raised the
concern of a number of municipalities that want the province to make changes;
including Ottawa, which has asked for an immediate comprehensive public review -
Critics are concerned that prospectors can stake a mining claim on private
property without notifying landowners, as long as the latter don't possess the
mineral rights - 1 more annotations...
Port Hope uranium study raises red flags in Sask.
New tests done on residents of Port Hope, Ont., home to the world's oldest uranium processing facility, present a "cautionary tale" for Saskatchewan, an environmental activist says.
Frustrated by the federal government's refusal to examine the health of residents, the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee decided to commission its own medical study.
The results, released Tuesday, showed that four of the nine people they paid to have screened for contamination had radioactive chemicals in their bodies.
This Magazine: Hot and bothered
A month earlier, the company had paid New Brunswick’s provincial government $4 million to buy exclusive uranium prospecting rights for the next year on a 136,000-hectare area between Sussex and Moncton. With the approval of the provincial government secured, the mining giant turned its attention to Moncton.
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Brunswick’s provincial government $4 million to buy exclusive uranium
prospecting rights for the next year on a 136,000-hectare area between Sussex
and Moncton. With the approval of the provincial government secured, the mining
giant turned its attention to Moncton. -
Mark Winfield
- 2 more annotations...
WISE - Nuclear issues information service
Environmental monitoring revealed a sharp increase of uranium loads in lake sediments near the operating Rabbit Lake mine in Saskatchewan. While natural uranium levels in the lake sediment are below 3 µg/g (3 micro grams per gram), levels in Hidden Bay had reached approx. 25 µg/g in 2000, and have more than doubled each year since, to approx. 250 µg/g in 2003. It is reassuring, though, that... "This has been recognized by the company and they are looking into ways of reducing uranium in the effluent."...
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Environmental monitoring revealed a sharp increase of uranium loads in lake
sediments near the operating Rabbit Lake mine in Saskatchewan. While natural
uranium levels in the lake sediment are below 3 µg/g (3 micro grams per gram),
levels in Hidden Bay had reached approx. 25 µg/g in 2000, and have more than
doubled each year since, to approx. 250 µg/g in 2003. It is reassuring, though,
that... "This has been recognized by the company and they are looking into ways
of reducing uranium in the effluent."...
Uranyl Acetate Causes DNA Single Strand Breaks In Vitro in the Presence of Ascorbate (Vitamin C) (Chemical Research in Toxicology/ACS Publications)
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little is known about chronic exposures, for example, if there is a direct
chemical genotoxicity of uranium -
These data suggest that uranium may be directly genotoxic and may, like
chromium, react with DNA by more than one pathway.
[Uranium exposure and cancer risk: a review of epi...[Rev Epidemiol Sante Publique. 2004] - PubMed Result
CONCLUSION: Only studies with a precise reconstruction of doses and sufficient numbers of workers will allow a better assessment of risks associated with uranium exposure at levels encountered in industry or during conflicts using depleted uranium weapons
Durakovic: Internal Contamination with Uranium
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The chemical toxicity of uranium has been recognized for more than two centuries
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Animal experiments and human studies are conclusive about metabolic adverse
affects and nephro- toxicity of uranium compounds - 3 more annotations...
Renal effects of uranium in drinking water.
Animal studies and small studies in humans have shown that uranium is nephrotoxic. However, more information about its renal effects in humans following chronic exposure through drinking water is required. We measured uranium concentrations in drinking water and urine in 325 persons who had used drilled wells for drinking water. We measured urine and serum concentrations of calcium, phosphate, glucose, albumin, creatinine, and beta-2-microglobulin to evaluate possible renal effects. The median uranium concentration in drinking water was 28 microg/L (interquartile range 6-135, max. 1,920 microg/L) and in urine 13 ng/mmol creatinine (2-75), resulting in the median daily uranium intake of 39 microg (7-224). Uranium concentration in urine was statistically significantly associated with increased fractional excretion of calcium and phosphate. Increase of uranium in urine by 1 microg/mmol creatinine increased fractional excretion of calcium by 1.5% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.6-2.3], phosphate by 13% (1.4-25), and glucose excretion by 0.7 micromol/min (-0.4-1.8). Uranium concentrations in drinking water and daily intake of uranium were statistically significantly associated with calcium fractional excretion, but not with phosphate or glucose excretion. Uranium exposure was not associated with creatinine clearance or urinary albumin, which reflect glomerular function. In conclusion, uranium exposure is weakly associated with altered proximal tubulus function without a clear threshold, which suggests that even low uranium concentrations in drinking water can cause nephrotoxic effects. Despite chronic intake of water with high uranium concentration, we observed no effect on glomerular function. The clinical and public health relevance of the findings are not easily established, but our results suggest that the safe concentration of uranium in drinking water may be within the range of the proposed guideline values of 2-30 microg/L.
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interquartile range 6-135, max. 1,920 microg/L
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low uranium concentrations in drinking water can cause nephrotoxic effect
The Fraser Institute -- News Releases -- Quebec stakes claim to best policy for mining; Nevada and Finland round out annual survey’s top three
After placing five provinces in the top 10 last year, only Quebec, Alberta
and Manitoba made the grade this year with New Brunswick falling to Number 13
from number 6 and Saskatchewan dropping to 12 from 10. This is the third
consecutive year that Saskatchewan has fallen in the mining survey.
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After placing five provinces in the top 10 last year, only Quebec, Alberta
and Manitoba made the grade this year with New Brunswick falling to Number 13
from number 6 and Saskatchewan dropping to 12 from 10. This is the third
consecutive year that Saskatchewan has fallen in the mining survey.
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