Setting: Uranium City, Saskatchewan

The real Uranium City is located in the northern part of Saskatchewan and has a population of just 73 as of 2016. It reached its peak population in 1981, when it had 2,507 residents. It immediately fell into a sharp decline and was reduced to a settlement when the closure of most of the mines led to an economic collapse. 

2016 Census Data

This fictionalized version is based on mining boom towns like the real Uranium City, and towns are located all over Canada. Saskatchewan alone produces approximately 15 percent of the world's Uranium– mining is integral to the culture of the province.

The script of this show and the dialogue between the characters imply that they suffered from a lack of infrastructure in their town, as displayed most clearly in the first introduction song, “The Uranium Suite”-- an introduction that showcases the teens’ tumultuous relationship with their hometown.  

The intro song, which has been the number in the show with the most change over the years, usually features Uranium City at the core– “setting the scene” for the world the teens exist in before the events of the show. 

We can discuss: 

• What impact would life in a town of less than a thousand have on a teen growing up?

• What are some things we take for granted living in a major city that isolated rural communities don’t have? 

• How does that shape one’s philosophy on what life and living is supposed to look like? 

Though Ride the Cyclone is based on Uranium City, it is heavily fictionalized. Richmond pulled the name from a Canadian registry of Ghost and Boomtowns, where it was listed as partially or fully abandoned. 

There are people who call Uranium City home. The real Uranium City is home to mostly home to Indigenous people and mixed Indigenous and European cultural groups. Three groups identified in the 2016 census as making up the majority population of Uranium City were First Nations people, the Inuit, and the Metis.

Indigenous and mixed indigenous European people live all across Canada–  in urban centers and rural dwellings.  For centuries, the Canadian government has used hostile and restrictive methods to strip Indigenous Canadians of their culture. The three main Indigenous groups in Canada are the Inuit, Metis, and the First Nations people, and they all have incredibly different cultural practices and backgrounds.

This map shows the closest First Nation to Uranium City, the Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nation, home to the Dene First Nations people of Canada. There is no First Nation tribal identification for Uranium City itself. 

We can discuss: 

• Why some people constitute certain areas as dead, uninhabited ghost towns when there are still communities living there?

What is Uranium?

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency:

“Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive element, which has the atomic number of 92 and corresponds to the chemical symbol U in the periodic table. It belongs to a special group of elements called “actinides” — elements that were discovered relatively late in history. Like all other actinides, uranium is “radioactive” – it decays over time and releases energy in the process. Its special properties make uranium the main source of fuel for nuclear reactors — a chicken-egg sized amount of uranium fuel can provide as much electricity as 88 tonnes of coal.

Uranium is among the more common elements in the earth’s crust — about 500 times more common than gold. Although it seems a very rare element, small amounts of uranium are present everywhere — in rock, soil, water, and even our bodies. There are also large amounts of highly diluted uranium in the ocean — approximately four billion tonnes.”

Canada is the second-largest producer of the world’s Uranium, behind Kazakhstan. Currently, the only producing area of Uranium in Canada is in Northern Saskatchewan. 

After World War II the demand for uranium grew, Canada was allied with the USA and Great Britain,  and pushing to produce the first atomic weapons. After demand was lowered, Canada imposed a policy of only mining and harvesting uranium for peaceful purposes, Which marked the end of the first uranium boom. They had a slightly smaller, second uranium boom in the 1980s, which was when Uranium City was at its peak population. 

The Chornobyl Disaster (Chernobyl in English): 

In the script, it is mentioned that Mischa’s mother, Tamara, was “part of the clean-up crew at Chernobyl, (and) was slowly dying from prolonged exposure to Uranium” (56)

The Chornobyl disaster happened on 26 April 1986 when a reactor at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine exploded completely.  It ruptured and lost coolant, so it created a steam explosion and meltdown. A reactor core fire spread radioactive contaminants, including uranium, all across the USSR and Europe. Uranium Dioxide Fuel is one of the main toxic components still found in parts of Ukraine and Belarus today. 

It remains the worst nuclear disaster in history, and the costliest disaster in human history, with an estimated cost of 700 billion. 

The Clean Up Crew: 

After the explosion, an emergency operation began to put out the fires and stabilize the reactor. Of the 237 workers hospitalized, 134 showed symptoms of acute radiation syndrome (ARS); 28 of them died within three months. Over the next decade, 14 more workers (nine of whom had ARS) died of various causes mostly unrelated to radiation exposure. (Clinically Observed Effects in Individuals Exposed to Radiation as a Result of the Chernobyl Accident)

Tamara Baschinski, as one of these emergency responders, most likely would have been a luckier one, that died slowly as opposed to instantly from prolonged exposure to Uranium. Although it does not state in the Script what Tamara was dying from– we can assume, based on what we know about Uranium and the body. 

What does Uranium do to the body? 

A huge motivator for people to up-and-leave these mining boom towns in Canada was exposure to Uranium, and other toxic metals and chemicals. Many in Ukraine, however, did not have a choice, as the radioactive and toxic matter had spread far beyond where they could live. 

The National Library of Medicine states that

“Uranium contamination has become a nonnegligible global health problem. Inhalation of particulate uranium is one of the predominant routes of occupational and environmental exposure. Uranium particle is a complex two-phase flow of matter that is both particulate and flowable. This particular physicochemical property may alter its biological activity. Epidemiological studies from occupationally exposed populations in the uranium industry have concluded that there is a possible association between lung cancer risk and uranium exposure, while the evidence for the risk of other tumors is not sufficient. The toxicological effects of particulate uranium exposure to animals have been shown in laboratory tests to focus on respiratory and central nervous system damage. Fibrosis and tumors can occur in the lung tissue of the respiratory tract. Uranium particles can also induce a concentration-dependent increase in cytotoxicity, targeting mitochondria. “

                                 (National Institue of Health)

Uranium mining, in specific, can lead to disastrous health complications for miners. In 1974 in Elliot Hill, Ontario, 1,000 miners went on strike against mine owners who were withholding information about exposure to uranium in mines causing lung cancer.  because of this strike in particular,  Canada passed a health and safety occupational Act,  promoting more transparency between employers and workers in dangerous jobs,  and the risks of exposure they may face. 

We can discuss:

• The teen’s relationship to Uranium– both literally and figuratively.

• How is uranium used as a symbol throught the show? How does it impact the story of your particular character and their life in Uranium City?

Resource Towns: 

In Canada, resource towns are  based on extracting or processing resources such as minerals, forest products, and hydroelectric power. Typically, the resource town is linked to an industry or business and lacks control over its economic growth. Outside corporations or governments control the economic base.

“Local workers populate many of the Atlantic provinces and Quebec resource towns. They come from the surrounding fishing, lumbering, and agricultural population. In sharp contrast, the workforce and management of the resource towns of Ontario and Western Canada come from well beyond the town or from outside the country. “New towns” created in largely uninhabited areas have no physical or cultural rural connections.” 

“A second major distinction relates to the decision-making process that creates and maintains the community. Some towns arise from decisions made by a single company or a government. Others evolve from decisions made by several companies or by the townspeople themselves.

“Another result is that most (but not all) resource towns have a relatively small population. Therefore, regardless of its economic base, they share many of the features of any small town. A final common characteristic is physical appearance. Recently built resource towns tend to resemble the new suburbs of large cities. A mine or mill generally dominates older towns.”

--- The Canadian Encyclopedia | Historica Canada

Resource towns that were founded specfically for the mining and harvesting of Uranium are known as Yellowcake Boomtowns– named after a type of Uranium ore with a brigh yellow color. Locals would find uranium in soil, and people would flood to set up mines and villages, hoping to get rich from mining and selling Uranium specifically. Today, there are Yellowcake Town relics all over the US and Canada.

Resource towns that were founded specfically for the mining and harvesting of Uranium are known as Yellowcake Boomtowns– named after a type of Uranium ore with a brigh yellow color. Locals would find uranium in soil, and people would flood to set up mines and villages, hoping to get rich from mining and selling Uranium specifically. Today, there are Yellowcake Town relics all over the US and Canada.

We can discuss:

• What is significant about living a town created around dealy substances used to create even deadlier weapons? How would your character feel about that?

• What might your characters have been taught/told in school about the mines in Canada, or boomtowns? 

• What kind of social norms would have been in place in such a small, isolated town?  

Sources:

“Census Profile, 2016 Census.” Uranium City, Northern Settlement [Designated Place], Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan [Province], https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=DPL&Code1=470239&Geo2=PR&Code2=47&Data=Count&SearchText=uranium&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&TABID=1. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

“Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima Nuclear Accidents: A Review of the Environmental Impacts.” Science of The Total Environment, vol. 470–471, pp. 800–17, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.10.029. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

“Indigenous Saskatchewan Encyclopedia.” Teaching-Indigenoussk, https://teaching.usask.ca/indigenoussk/index.php. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

Levin, Dan. “Faded Yukon Gold Rush Town, Population 20, Mines Its Weirdness.” The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/world/canada/yukon-keno-city.html.

Open Maps Data Viewer. https://search.open.canada.ca/openmap/b6567c5c-8339-4055-99fa-63f92114d9e4?_gl=1*phy72s*_ga*MTgxOTA2NDQ4LjE3MzM3NzMyMjg.*_ga_S9JG8CZVYZ*MTczMzc3MzIyOC4xLjAuMTczMzc3MzIyOC42MC4wLjA. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

Zhang, Liandong, et al. “Health Effects of Particulate Uranium Exposure.” Toxics, vol. 10, no. 10, Sept. 2022, p. 575, doi:10.3390/toxics10100575.