My Breath, My Life:The Dangers Of Yellow Cake Uranium Mines
Taylor Bear Poncho
Acoma/Laguna Pueblo
Embedded Files
" SELFIE" Poncho, Taylor. Personal Photo. 24 February, 2022
Research
"Race Day" Poncho, Taylor. Personal Photo 11 September, 2021
Sharing One Skin
Citations:
Armstrong, Jeanette, ¨Sharing One Skin¨ Paradigm Wars Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Globalization. Eds Mander, Jerry and Victoria Tauil-Corpuz. Sierra, San Francisco, Book Clubs. 2006. Print. Pp 34-39.
After reading the ¨Sharing One Skin¨ article, it was really interesting to read. Learning to get to know about someone else's tribe or community. In their community they have four capacities of themselves and that would be The Physical Self, The Emotional Self, The Thinking Intellectual Self, and The Spiritual Self. Getting to know how or what they do, also knowing us that we are not the only Native Americans out there. There are multiple communities all over the world. These communities seem to also connect to us pueblo people as well, when having a gathering all the ladies have to help each other with making food for the guests or other family they are going to have. You're not alone in the community, you're all family and we make sure you feel loved and a part of the community.
"Good Day to Dance" Poncho, Taylor. Personal Photo. 14 March, 2022
Native American Identity
Citations:
Horse, Perry G., Native American Identity¨New Directions For Student Services
no. 109, Wiley Periodicals. Inc. Spring 2005, Print. 61-68,
Within reading the article ¨Native American Identity¨ was that some people are also thinking about losing their native language and their things they do as a community. Other people think the same thing as if losing something they think they will not have anything to do or show in their communities. They still might be a pueblo or tribe but will not have a language to speak or have any traditional things for their community. I think all pueblos have this fear about losing everything they have. As a Native American, I am enrolled in the Pueblo of Acoma after reading this article I felt how the person that wrote this story because yes nowadays kids in our generation dont know our keres language and our Indian traditions. I do have that fear of us not being a pueblo anymore. I am scared to lose what we have. As for myself I am trying the best way I can to learn my tradition and learning how to speak my language. I don't want us to lose anything we have in our pueblo. I always try to teach my sister or me and my sister always try to talk or teach each other. We want to learn so we are able to teach our kids and talk to them so they can try to keep this going on. I can't imagine my pueblo not knowing our language or our traditional things.
¨Uranium Mine and Mill Workers are Dying, and Nobody Will Take Responsibility
Reading the article ¨Uranium Mine and Mill Workers are Dying, and Nobody Will Take Responsibility¨, has given out so much information about people working in the mines. These mines were located in Grants, Paugate, and Church Rock, NM. The mining system was started in 1546 in Schneeberg, Germany. Uranium mining has long been known to be dangerous work, it is also known to have high numbers of people dealing with Pulmonary Fibrosis or also to have lung cancer in the year of 1913. The men and women wanted to provide for their families and would be getting paid $6 dollars an hour. When the men would make their way to work their bosses always told them ¨Every day, they told us we were doing our part for the Cold War effort, They’d tell us, ‘We won the Cold War because of you guys.’”After many months or years with working in the mining system they did not know the dangers of would the uranium would do to them as the years pass by. The families of the men were only allowed one dust mask each month. The uranium dust was so bad the other people around the community would have to mask up either wearing a dust mask, paper mask, bandanas or nothing. Yellow Cake Uranium was very bad. The men would bring it home to their families, it would stay stained onto their clothes no matter how much they would wash them with clorox they would still be stained into their clothes. Even if you didnt work or have stepped foot onto the mines women were getting sick from their husbands bringing home the dust on their clothes. The Uranium dust was also causing birth defects to women who were pregnant. After given all the dangers with working with Uranium the company should have provided extensive training on radiation hazards. As of 2015 they are still trying to pass a bill to the Senate about the Post 1971 Workers.
Sorrentino, Joseph, In These Times, ¨Uranium Mine and Mill workers are Dying and nobody will take responsibility¨ February 15, 2016, Accessed on October 5, 2021.
Stricken Navajo Uranium Miners Must Battle Federal Bureaucracy : Radiation: They clawed yellow cake out of the ground to fuel Cold War weapons; more than 400 of them died because of it.
¨Stricken Navajo Uranium Miners Must Battle Federal Bureaucracy : Radiation: They clawed yellowcake out of the ground to fuel Cold War weapons; more than 400 of them died because of it.¨ was another article that I found interesting to read about. Most of the mining programs are here in New Mexico, Southern Utah, Nevada, and Northern Arizona. According to the Justice Department more that 2,000 miners have filed for that money and out of all those people only 890 have been approved for that payment. 200 Navajos have filed for that payment as well and out of those 200 Navajos about 63 of them have been accepted for that payment. In Benally´s words he says ¨“We just lived a few yards from the mine,” she said. “When they needed more uranium they would put that explosive in and you could see that yellow dust just a few yards from our house.” The miners were not the only ones being exposed, many of the miners would move their families to live besides the mine campus. Some of the miners' spouses have passed away from not even working in the mines but from their husbands coming home with the uranium still being stuff on their clothes they would be exposed to. In the interview Mr. Tuff says his wife has passed away from throat cancer. Yellow cake also has caused women to not have kids or make them have a very rare disorder. As those people who lived near the mining system when they needed more uranium they would set off the explosion and a couple seconds later they could see the yellow dust.
Rawson, William F., Los Angeles Times, ¨Stricken Navajo Uranium Miners Must Battle Federal Bureaucracy : Radiation: They clawed yellowcake out of the ground to fuel Cold War weapons; more than 400 of them died because of it.¨, 22 August, 1993. Accessed on 5 October, 2021.
Uranium In The Ground
After watching this video of Uranium In The Ground he says that uranium is in the sandstone. They also call the yellow cake uranium U308 because it is actually bright yellow. Yellow Cake Uranium is radioactive. The yellow cake is in very large piles which are called mill tailings, which is what is left over from the mines. The uranium can change into something else, radioactive is emitting or relating to the emission of ionizing radiation or particles. That means the mining sand is not good for anything else or not to be used again. Some construction sites have used the mill tailing sand to build a house. That was a very bad idea for them to do that because the sand still has the uranium inside of it. So that person's house had to be torn down because of too much radioactive material that was in it. When they do that they have to bury the uranium sand or take it back to where they have got it or another thing is they will have to pave it on top.
¨Uranium From The Ground¨, Youtube, Uploaded by Illinois EnergyProf, 19 May, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWreTJWRDpQ.
In the article ¨Nuclear wasteland: The explosive boom and long, painful bust of America urine mining¨ is about U. S government incentives and trade barriers are sparked by a gold rush for uranium, the chemical element that was fueling the nuclear arms race at the time. 60 years have passed and American uranium miners want the government to use similar tools to prevent the collapse of the industry. Some of the many companies are still producing uranium for the nation's fleet for more of the nuclear power plants. In the United States some of the companies nearly produced 44 million pounds of uranium concentrate. In the last few years American Miners produced 2.4 million pounds and supplied 7 percent of the uranium bought by domestic plants. Uranium mining in the U.S is little known, but it's intertwined with some of the defining events of the 20th century, the Cold War. U.S miners remain involved in servicing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, submarines, aircraft carriers and power plants. Nearly half of the uranium that has been used in the United States has come from allies like Canada and Australia. “One of the main problems beyond the U.S. industry’s control is that the richest and most accessible uranium deposits are not found in the United States. The resources of Canada and Australia have higher uranium content and a lower production cost per unit.¨ 1989 after concluding a so-called 232 investigation, the same type of review the Trump administration just opened.The U.S. uranium mining industry is relatively young. It went through a brief golden age between about 1955 and 1980, beginning when the United States offered generous incentives to shore up its stockpiles of the nuclear weapons fuel during the Cold War.In the early days, the government offered a 10-year price guarantee for certain kinds of uranium ore. It also paid out a $10,000 discovery and production bonus for each new source of supplies, which pencils out to roughly $95,000 in today’s dollars. In the early days, the government offered a 10-year price guarantee for certain kinds of uranium ore. It also paid out a $10,000 discovery and production bonus for each new source of supplies, which pencils out to roughly $95,000 in today’s dollars.
DiChristopher, Tom: ENERGY Nuclear wasteland: The explosive boom and long, painful bust of American uranium mining, CNBC, Published Sat, Aug 4, 2018, Updated Sun, Aug. 5, 2018,https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/the-miners-that-fuel-americas-nuclear-power-and-atomic-arsenal-are-di.html. Accessed on Nov. 8, 2021
"Good Old Days" Poncho, Taylor. Personal Photo. 15 October, 2021
In the article Uranium-How it is Mined? Was about how the uranium is actually really mined and the uranium resources would be extracted from the ground in three ways , open pit, underground and in-situ leach which is also called ISL. Open pit mining is also known as strip mining which is the removal of surficial soils and uneconomic rock to get the ore down below. The Jackpile Mine on Laguna Pueblo was once the world's largest open pit uranium mine.Once the ore horizon is exposed, a series of benches or steps are cut into it to make removal of the ore easier. Within the pit, depending on the size of the mine, there maybe one or more roads cut into the sides for the huge earth/ore haulers to navigate the area. Pumps maybe utilized to dewater the pit.
Ulmer-Scholle, Dana S. Uranium — How Is It Mined, New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, Revised May 20, 2021, https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/resources/uranium/mining.html, Accessed on Nov. 8, 2021
"Gramps In A Big Truck" Poncho, Taylor. 9 November, 2019
After watching the video ¨How is Uranium Mining Conducted in the United States¨ was more information about the Uranium Mines in the United States and what the Uranium was used for. What is the difference between in situ and conventional uranium mining? In the United States currently the majority of Uranium is conducted using situating in situ mining is a process where the uranium is leashed in placed in situ water wells that are drained into the uranium deposit and the groundwater is circulated groundwater is circulated with oxygen. When oxygen is added to the water it literally rusts the rock when you rust a nail. When you have uranium ore and rust the rock turns from gray to a yellowish color, that yellow oxidized uranium is soluble and is brought to the surface and it is extracted from the water through a treatment process. The united States still is conventional and there is many deposits that can only be produced through conventional means with the rock is excavated from the earth its either excavated underground in tunnels or workings or if the ore is shallow enough it can be dug up and piles and taken out through what is called an open pit type of technique where its mined from the surface. The ore is taken with trucks to a mill where the uranium is grounded or the ore as ground as and crushed the uranium
¨How is Uranium Mining Conducted in the United States¨, Youtube, Uploaded on July 10, 2012. Accessed on Nov. 8, 2021, https://youtu.be/KqzzapZCXA4
"Working Hard" Poncho, Taylor. Personal Photo. 15 October, 2021
In the article “Israel’s Quest for Yellowcake: The Secret Argentina-Israel Connection, 1963-1966” I have found so much information. During 1963-64, the Israeli government secretly acquired 80-100 tons of Argentine uranium oxide (yellowcake) for its nuclear weapons program, according to US and British archival documents published today for the first time. Back in those days, the men who dug up the uranium would sell the yellowcake uranium. Yellowcake, a processed uranium ore, was critically important to Israel for fuelling its nuclear reactor at Dimona and thereby for producing plutonium for weapons. The story of the Argentine yellowcake sale to Israel has remained largely unknown in part because Israel has gone to great lengths to keep tight secrecy to this day about how and where it acquired raw materials for its nuclear program. Argentina made the yellowcake sale to Israel has already been disclosed in declassified US intelligence estimates, but how and when Washington learned about the sale and how it reacted to it can now be learned from largely untapped archival sources. Among the disclosures in today’s publication. Ever since late 1960, when the CIA learned that the Israelis had been constructing, with French assistance, a major nuclear facility near Dimona in the Negev Desert, the United States and its close allies, Canada and the United Kingdom, and even its Soviet adversary, suspected that Israel had a nuclear weapons program underway. Closely monitoring Israeli nuclear activities Canadian intelligence discovered the yellowcake sale sometime in the spring of 1964 and soon shared this sensitive information with the British. According to the initial Canadian information as well as additional details later gleaned by the US State Department in late 1963 Argentina had secretly negotiated a long-term contract with Israel to provide at least 80 tons of yellowcake. While the Americans and the British were initially somewhat skeptical about the accuracy of the Canadian report, subsequent investigations demonstrated that it was correct. Trying to ensure that uranium exports were safeguarded to prevent diversion into military programs, Washington complained to the Argentines about the unsafeguarded sale, then queried the Israelis, and applied intelligence resources to find out more about the transaction.
Burr, William: Cohen, Avner: “Israel’s Quest for Yellowcake: The Secret Argentina-Israel Connection, 1963-1966”, Wilson Center: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/israels-quest-for-yellowcake-the-secret-argentina-israel-connection-1963-1966. Accessed on February 15, 2022.
70 Years Of Global Uranium Production
70 Years Of Global Uranium Production
In the article “70 years of global uranium production by country” I have found lots more information. Uranium has been around for a long time since the 1700’s so about 200 years ago. It is the world's most important energy mineral. The first commercial nuclear power plant came online in 1956. Before that, uranium production was mainly dedicated to satisfying military requirements. In the 1940s, most of the world’s uranium came from the Shinkolobwe Mine in the Belgian Congo. During this time, Shinkolobwe and Canada’s Eldorado Mine also supplied uranium for the Manhattan Project and the world’s first atomic bomb. The end of World War II marked the beginning of two events that changed the uranium industry: the Cold War and the advent of nuclear energy. Between 1960 and 1980, global uranium production increased by 53% to reach an all-time high of 69,692 tonnes. Here’s a breakdown of the top uranium producers in 1980. In the U.S in 1980 16,811 production tones made 24%. Uranium producers have changed considerably over time. Since the economic viability of uranium deposits often depends on the market price, many countries have dropped out due to lower uranium prices, while others have entered the mix.
Bhutada, Govind: “70 years of global uranium production by country”, Mining Dot Com, https://www.mining.com/web/70-years-of-global-uranium-production-by-country/. Published on September 21, 2021, Accessed on February 15, 2021.
Where Can Uranium Be Found?
Where Can Uranium Be Found?
The Youtube Video “ Where can you find Uranium?” talked about how uranium can be found and where and how to find it. The best place to find uranium would be in a silver mine. Speaking silver, there's 40 times more uranium than silver. Uranium in mines is in the form of Uraninite ores. Uraninite is another word they would call uranium. It looks black because it has been oxidized. What does it look like when the oxidized layer is taken out? It looks silver. It is shiny and metallic. Aside from mines, the uranium can be found in your backyard, or in some seawater. It's just in really small amounts, so small that fact that it's not worth the effort to extract.After learning more and more about the uranium mines, all the uranium on earth was formed during the death of a star, it is theorized that most of the earth's heat comes from radioactive decay, it is actually mainly residual heat from earth's creation 4 billion years ago. The top three countries that hold uranium are Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia. Now that you've found uranium, How do you make and enrich those uranium rods?
Qwikili,” Where can you find uranium?”, Youtube: Published April 29, 2013. https://youtu.be/iLUOrtrbFBw.
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