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On 18 April 1974, uranium miners at Elliot Lake, concerned about the prevalence of lung cancer and silicosis, started a fourteen-day wildcat strike. [5] [6] The strike prompted Ontario Premier Bill Davis on 10 September 1974 to ask engineer and university administrator [7] James Ham to lead a commission on the health and safety of workers in ...
The radiation hazards of uranium mining and milling were not appreciated in the early years, resulting in workers being exposed to high levels of radiation. Inhalation of radon gas caused sharp increases in lung cancers among underground uranium miners employed in the 1940s and 1950s. [15]
The Inquiry found that if uranium mining was properly regulated and controlled, its hazards were not sufficient to prevent the development of the mines. The Inquiry recommended the establishment of a comprehensive system of environmental monitoring and research, overseen by a coordinating committee representing all the agencies involved, and ...
The radiation hazards of uranium mining and milling were not appreciated in the early years, resulting in workers being exposed to high levels of radiation. Radon gas is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas that forms naturally from the decay of radioactive elements like uranium, found in rocks and soil.
The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project was created by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to monitor the cleanup of uranium mill tailings, a by-product of the uranium concentration process that poses risks to the public health and environment. The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act passed by Congress in 1978 ...
For instance in 1994 the operators of the Olympic Dam mine, Western Mining Corporation, admitted that their uranium tailings containment had released of up to 5 million m3 of contaminated water into the subsoil. [21] The cost of mine cleanup has typically been 10 times that of mining industry estimates when acid drainage was involved. [22]
One of the advantages of this method is that any sample provides two clocks, one based on uranium-235's decay to lead-207 with a half-life of about 703 million years, and one based on uranium-238's decay to lead-206 with a half-life of about 4.5 billion years, providing a built-in crosscheck that allows accurate determination of the age of the ...
Uranium tailings or uranium tails are a radioactive waste byproduct of conventional uranium mining and uranium enrichment. They contain the radioactive decay products from the uranium decay chains, mainly the U-238 chain, and heavy metals. Long-term storage or disposal of tailings may pose a danger for public health and safety.