URANUS & The Radioactive Metals
Nuclear reactors are fuelled with enriched uranium or plutonium which is placed in the core along with ‘control rods’ made of a material that absorbs neutrons and takes them out of circulation so they will not produce further fission. These rods are manipulated so that just enough neutrons remain circulating to maintain a chain reaction with a multiplication factor of one.
In case of emergency, the rods automatically move deeper into the core, absorbing more neutrons and (hopefully) instantly stopping the chain reaction. Power reactors in the U.S. use water as the moderator (it is the moderator which slows the neutrons down).
Apart from the power reactors are the much more dangerous ‘breeder’ reactors which convert U-23 8, which is not fissionable, into plutonium-239. In this ironically reproductive jargon, U-23 8 is called a ‘fertile’ material, in contrasttoU-235andPu-239whichare ‘fissile.’ In a liquid metal fast breeder reactor it takes about 10 years for the reactor to have enough plutonium to refuel itself, plus fuel another reactor. The breeding must begin with U-235, and it must be a worry to the nuclear industry that if non-breeder reactors use up all the U-235 there will be none left to start the breeding cycle.
In certain breeders, no moderator is used because it is the fast neutrons that convert U-23 8 to plutonium. Water cannot be used to carry heat from the core as in a conventional reactor, because it would slow down the neutrons, so liquid sodium is used instead. Sodium is an efficient conductor of heat, but it burns on contact with air or water, becomes highly radioactive from the neutron bombardment, and being opaque, makes it impossible for technicians to see what they are doing when changing fuel or other core operations. Cooling becomes more difficult to control and accidents such as a meltdown become more likely than with conventional reactors.l‘ This ever-present danger is the price we pay for our power, every time we plug into the national electrical grid.
THE URANIUM LANDS
Although it is one of the most sought after substances on earth, uranium is not arare mineral, in fact it is more abundant than such’ common’ elements as mercury or silver. But in most rocks the concentration of uranium is only a few parts in a million.
The leading ore reserves are found in the U.S., Canada, South Africa (where uranium is produced as a by-product of the gold industry), Czechoslovakia (the original source of most of the world’s uranium), Zaire (whose reserves are virtually exhausted), Australia and France. Details of the uranium reserves in other communist countries are more difficult to come by.
In the U.S. uranium is mined extensively in the southwestern deserts of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, known as the Four Corners Area. This is land sacred to the Navajo and Hopi Indians who regard its centre at Black Mountain as one of the most sacred places in the world. Their tradition entails a limitless respect for the Great Spirit and for all living beings. Living in harmony with nature is of the deepest value and they direct their prayer ceremonies of song and dance for the balancing of nature in the world. However, these peaceful people have seen their ancestral land so devastated since uranium and coal mining began that they fear the destruction of their religion and even their own lives.
According to the Hopi Prophecy, inscribed on rock and passed down from generation to generation, the Great Spirit had warned that the resources lying dormant there were not to be taken from the ground until humans learned to use them for peaceful ends. Above all, they must never be used for war or destructive purposes.12
Little did the Hopi and Navajo know that the uranium used in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was mined on their land. But the Japanese were not the only victims. In the 1950s, a total of 119 atmospheric nuclear tests were conducted in Nevada, blasts that lit the skies as far away as Los Angeles. Some 200-300,000 test subjects, U.S. soldiers, were experimentally dosed with radioactive fallout. We can only wonder how many of these ‘atomic soldiers’ are still alive today.
To carry out their claim for the coal and uranium on Indian land, the government declared it a ‘national sacrifice’ area and in 1974 the U.S. Congress passed a bill for the forced relocation, literally the cultural genocide, of the people who had lived there for thousands of years. The ‘new lands’ offered them in return are contaminated by one of the worst radiation accidents in U.S. history, when in 1979, thousands of tons of radioactive water and sludge burst a levy and flooded into the Rio Puerco; this flows into the Rio Grande, which then carries on into the Gulf of Mexico.
Many Navajos had no choice but to work for the multinational companies who did not inform them of the dangers involved in uranium mining. Those working in the mines suffered, and are still suffering, from cancer, severe radiation exposure and respiratory diseases. ‘ ‘I felt as if I had atomic bombs in my lungs,” said one miner not long before he died.12
The process of extracting uranium dioxide from the ore to produce yellowcake generates large quantities of radioactive waste, as one ton of ore has to be processed to yield just 10 grams of uranium. An estimated 280 million tons of radioactive waste tailings have been left on Navajo land up to 1990. The driving desert winds scatter the powder over a vast area, contaminating the earth, the animals and the people. Many are becoming sick, stricken with cancer and other diseases, and even more ominously, a growing number of women are giving birth to deformed and mentally retarded babies.
But the mining continues. The government has declared this land to be ’eminent domain’ and plans to have 1000 mines and 10 processing plants in operation by the year 2000.
THE GREEN ANTS DREAMING
The Aborigines of Australia have also been witnessing the destruction of their most sacred sites by uranium mining, and are speaking out about how the unique energy system that protects and energizes our planet is being destroyed.