Uranium in Quebec“Leave it in the Ground”

a slideshow prepared by Dr. Gordon Edwards

for the AENQ 2013 Congress

with photos and graphics by Robert Del Tredici

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

A Model of the Uranium Atom

Uranium Exploration in Quebec

Shut Down Permanently Dec. 28 2013

Moratoria on Uranium Mining

1980 B.C. temporary –> 2008 permanent

1982 Virginia USA –> ban still in place

1981 Nova Scotia –> Law 2009 permanent

2010 International Physicians for the prevention of nuclear war calls for a global ban on uranium

2012 Eeyou-Istchee (Cree) permanent

2013 Quebec ?

What You Can Do To Help

1. Resolution calling for a moratorium --

• already passed by dozens of municipalities

• endorsements by Cree communties?

• endorsements by Inuit communities?

• letters of support to the Mayor of Amqui?

2. Martine Ouellet announcement Thursday in Chibougaumau – can you attend?

• “generic” environmental hearings on U

• temporary moratorium on U mining

Internet Resources

1. Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

• www.CCNR.org/uranium

2. Quebec sans uranium

• www.quebecsansuranium.org

3. United against Uranium in James Bay/Eeyou-Istchee

• www.facebook.com/bjeisansuranium

4. WISE Uranium Project

• www.wise-uranium.org

I. History of Uranium – Radioactivity & Decay

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

A Model of the Uranium Atom

Henri Becquerel 1896accidentally discovered that uranium ore is radioactive

What is Radioactivity?

• Most materials have stable atoms (they never change).

• Radioactive materials have unstable atoms (they will change).

• Unstable atoms will disintegrate (suddenly and violently).

• The moment of disintegration is when biological harm is done.

• One “becquerel” indicates one disintegration (decay) per second.

• The “half-life” is the time it takes for half the atoms to disintegrate.

Atomic

Atomic

(gamma ray)

(alpha or beta)

..

A gamma ray is like an x-ray, but more powerful. highly penetrating

A beta particle is like a sub-atomic bullet. moderately penetrating

An alpha particle is like a subatomic cannon ball. slightly penetrating

Alpha and Beta particles are INTERNAL hazards..

Ball of Plutonium

Marie Curie 1898discovered radium and polonium,

-- two of the decay products of uranium

What is a Decay Product?

• When disintegration (decay) occurs, a radioactive atom is transmuted – it is fundamentally altered. • So in a radioactive material, new atoms are being created; they are called “decay products” or “progeny”.

• If a given decay product is also radioactive, then it will have its own decay products, and so on and so on . . .

. . . this gives rise to a “decay chain” or “decay series”.

Uranium Decay Chain

Here is the decay chain of uranium-238, the most common type of uranium

found in nature.

Uranium Decay Chain

On a weight-by-weight basis, all of the uranium decay products are much more radioactive and much more dangerous than uranium itself.

The 3 types of polonium are the most dangerous of all.

1. Radium -the silent killer

Uranium Decay Products

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

Radium dial painters

Radium-226

Dial Painters 1920

Radium dial painters

Radium, like calcium, goes to the bones.Dial painters suffered from radium poisoning.

Phase 1: Fatal anemia (from bone marrow)Phase 2: Bone cancer (from skeletal damage)Phase 3: Head cancer (sinuses and mastoid)

Phase 3 is caused by radon gas produced in the bones by radium decay then carried by the blood to the head

where the radioactive gas builds up.

In 1920s, radium sold for $100 000 per gram.Now it is discarded as a waste byproduct.

BCMA: “Radium is a superb carcinogen”

2. Polonium -most radiotoxic element

Uranium Decay Products

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

Polonium-210

Alexander Litvinenko 2006

Polonium-210

http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/84.html

Weight by weight

it is about 250 billion times

as toxic as hydrogen cyanide.

Los Alamos National Laboratory's Chemistry Division

Dose Coefficients for an adult (ingestion) in microSieverts per Becquerel (official figures from EURATOM 96/29)

Polonium 210

Lead 210

Plutonium 239

Uranium 238

Radium 226

Polonium-210

… is probably the cause of

up to 90 percent of the deaths

attributed to tobacco.

American Health Physics Society

( lung cancers, heart attacks, strokes )

3. Radon -public health hazard

Uranium Decay Products

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

Yellowcake Road

Navajo Miner

Radon

Underground Miner (Navajo)

“Alpha Radiation” from a tiny radioactive particle in lung tissue

Radon Progeny

(chart

)Radon

Progeny (chart

)

Although radon is a gas . . .

Radon Decay (chart

)Radon

Progeny (chart

)

Although radon is a gas . . .

its decay products are solidsand lodge in the lungs . . .

Lung Dose (chart

)Radon

Progeny (chart

)

Although radon is a gas . . .

. . . in fact 85% of the lung doseis from alpha-emitting polonium

its decay products are solidsand lodge in the lungs . . .

4. Uranium Tailings -dangerous

for 500,000 years

Uranium Decay Products

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

Uranium Shovel

Key Lake Mine

Gaertner Pit, Key Lake Uranium Mine, Saskatchewan

Stanrock Tailings Pile, Elliot Lake Ont. (70 million tonnes)

Uranium Decay Chain

. .

Uranium Decay Chain

.

.

85% of the radioactivity in the oreIs left behind in the uranium tailings

Uranium Decay Chain

..

Half life = 76 000 years

.

.

.

.

.

.

. .

. .

.

Thorium-230 replenishes the inventory of radium, radon and polonium

for hundreds of thousands of years

aa

WASHINGTON (June 2007) — A preponderance of scientific evidence shows that even low doses of ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays and X-rays, are likely to pose some risk of adverse health effects, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council

2007 press release announcing publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ BEIR-VII Report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

aa2007 press release announcing publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ BEIR-VII Report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

. . . such radiation can cause DNA damage that eventually leads to cancers. However, more research is needed to determine whether low doses of radiation may also cause other health problems, such as heart disease and stroke, which are now seen with high doses

aa

"The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of exposure below which low levels of ionizing radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial," said committee chair Richard R. Monson, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.

2007 press release announcing publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ BEIR-VII Report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

2. History of Uranium –Bombs and Reactors

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

Nuclear Weapons

and Bomb Fallout

A Model of the Uranium Atom

Splitting of the Atom

Mushroom Clouds

Quebec Agreement

Prime Minister of Canada

Quebec 1942

Presidentof the U.S.A.

Prime Ministerof Britain

Quebec Accord : tripartite cooperationin the making of the first atomic bombs

Fat Man and Little Boy

1945

Little Boy:Hiroshima

(HEU Uranium)

Fat Man: Nagasaki

(Plutonium)

Yellowcake Road

The Yellowcake Road (Canada)

Nuclear Reactors

and High-Level Waste

Small Wonder

Face of the CANDU

Empty Spent Fuel Pool

Full Spent Fuel Pool

Dry Storage at G-1

Silos at Lepreau

Messy Shaft

Thermal Pulse

Water Volume

The minimum amount of water needed to dilute one year’s waste from one CANDU is about the same as the amount of water in Lake Superior.

This graph represents theIrradiated fuel produced in asingle year by one CANDU.

The toxicity of irradiated CANDU fuel

over a period often million years

Ontario Royal Commission on Electric Power Planning (1978)

Fukushima Dai-ichi Reactor Exploding

Plutonium

and Reprocessing

Enrichment plant

Creation of plutonium in a nuclear reactor…

. . . when an atom of uranium-238 absorbs a neutron

Enrichment plant

. . . It is transformed into an atom of plutonium-239

Ball of Plutonium

Madonna of the Glovebox

Madonna of the Glovebox

Madonna of the Glovebox

Maids of Muslyumovo

The End

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility

www.ccnr.org

Key Concepts

1.Radioactive atoms disintegrate

2.They turn into other substances

3.They get into the food and the body

4.Alpha, beta, gamma rays are emitted

5.Cancers & blood diseases result

6.Unborn children may suffer ill effects