1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: and there's Charles w Chuck, Brian over there, and Jerry's 4 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: over there out there in the ether, but here still, 5 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:24,759 Speaker 1: and this is stuff you should know. Jerry, whom we 6 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:30,400 Speaker 1: love so much. UM. So we're talking Chuck about uranium mining, obviously, 7 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: because anytime Jerry comes up, he goes pretty much hand 8 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: in hand with uranium mining, right. Um. And like we 9 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: talked about mining before, none of our finest episode, if 10 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,879 Speaker 1: I remember correctly from some of the listener mail corrections 11 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:51,840 Speaker 1: we got, you know, it's like underground mining. We're gonna 12 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: secret around that. And um, uranium mining is like its 13 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 1: own thing. Like all mining is pretty bears some resemblance 14 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: to want a but uranium mining in particular, is um 15 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: really heavily regulated. Um, the stuff that it produces, uranium 16 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:15,520 Speaker 1: appropriately enough, is a a really regulated substance because it 17 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: can do some pretty powerful stuff. And it's just kind 18 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:22,840 Speaker 1: of interesting, especially considering the history of uranium and humans, 19 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: which is a fairly recent history. Yeah, I mean, you know, 20 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: it kind of depends on what era you're talking about. 21 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:32,200 Speaker 1: But um, uranium brings to mind a couple of things 22 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: depending on when you're talking about. If you're talking about 23 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:38,839 Speaker 1: the fifties during the Cold War and the arms race, 24 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:43,000 Speaker 1: then you can only think about enriched uranium in nuclear 25 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 1: nuclear war and nuclear bombs. If you fast forward to 26 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: the seventies, you think about a kinder, gentler uranium, uh, 27 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:55,600 Speaker 1: still radioactive, but um one that would be used for 28 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: energy production. And here's a pretty whopping stat on on 29 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: the kind of punch it packs as far as producing energy. 30 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: And this is startling, frankly, A seven gram pellet of 31 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,680 Speaker 1: uranium fuel produces as much energy as almost eight pounds 32 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: of coal and three and a half barrels of oil. 33 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: I I love that too, So I fiddled with it 34 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,399 Speaker 1: on a calculator a little bit. So if you took 35 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: about seventy fives of enriched uranium fuel, it would produce 36 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:31,360 Speaker 1: the same amount of energy as something like almost two 37 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 1: million pounds of coal. Just just hundred and fifty pounds 38 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: produces two million pounds of coal's worth of energy. And 39 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing stuff. And it's because uranium is is radioactive, 40 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: like it decays spontaneously over um over time, right, and 41 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: when it does, it releases gamma, radiation and energy in 42 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: the form of heat. And if you can contain and 43 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: kind of encourage this decay um, these these reactions where 44 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 1: neutrons kind of bombard uranium atoms and create all sorts 45 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: of energy release um, and it happens like trillions of 46 00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: times a second. You can generate enough heat to boil 47 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: water to spin a turbine, which to me still is 48 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,240 Speaker 1: one of the most hilarious things that humans have ever 49 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: come up with. Using nuclear fuel to generate steam to 50 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: turn a turbine to produce electricity is just as hilariously 51 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:29,119 Speaker 1: roundabout as it gets. But that's what nuclear energy does. 52 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: That's how it produces electricity. Yeah, And kind of the 53 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: cool thing about that production of electricity and regards to 54 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 1: nuclear warheads is after the de escalation after the Cold War, 55 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: and we could still go back and use that stuff. 56 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: We could take that enriched uranium that was stored in 57 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: nuclear weapons and reuse a lot of that stuff. In fact, 58 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 1: most of it, I think for reactors to power reactors. Yeah, 59 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: and you can get a lot of use out of 60 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 1: it because typically the nuclear fuel, the enriched uranium that 61 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: they use in a nuclear reactor to create electricity is 62 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: about five cent um uranium two thirty five, which is 63 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: that's the money isotope when you're creating nuclear power, that's right. 64 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:18,680 Speaker 1: If you're using it for military purposes like a nuclear bomb, 65 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: it's like, so you could get a lot of nuclear 66 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: fuel out of ranium uranium that was enriched for a 67 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 1: nuclear bomb and reusing it for nuclear fuel. I think 68 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: that's just such a great like like swords to plowshares, 69 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:36,919 Speaker 1: kind of kind of fable. Yeah, and there's um, you know, 70 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:38,600 Speaker 1: it can also be used for other stuff. It does, 71 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:43,640 Speaker 1: it's not just for making power super efficiently. Um. There's 72 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: something called and I don't know how it's pronounced, but 73 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: it's m O l y B denim d U d 74 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:52,520 Speaker 1: E n U M so. I don't know if it's 75 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: the B asylum and it's molly denom ninety nine or 76 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:00,200 Speaker 1: molly B denim, but I think they call it MO 77 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: ninety nine, which is super useful. But it's this is 78 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: a decay product, uh, one of the decay products of uranium. 79 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:12,039 Speaker 1: And it is really useful for medical imaging, like to 80 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: see if your hard is bumping right, or to see 81 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: if your cancer is metastasized and the kind of freaky 82 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:22,279 Speaker 1: thing is until it was actually made and used from 83 00:05:22,279 --> 00:05:26,160 Speaker 1: weapons grade uranium UH, and then starting in two thousand ten, 84 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: now that it's a low enriched version that they used 85 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,280 Speaker 1: for it, and I saw that there are nuclear reactors 86 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:34,359 Speaker 1: that produce electricity that don't have to use enriched uranium. 87 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:38,039 Speaker 1: They can actually use like natural uranium or and still 88 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: generate electricity from that UM, which I think that might be. 89 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a trend or not, but 90 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:45,480 Speaker 1: I'd like to see it become one where it's like, 91 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: if we can get away with nuclear enrichment UH and 92 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: not do that anymore, it would save a lot of 93 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: problems because nuclear in and of itself isn't necessarily problematic, 94 00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:59,559 Speaker 1: and it is like low carbon or almost carbon free 95 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 1: a form of energy, but there's a lot of problems 96 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:09,720 Speaker 1: with the byproducts of the enrichment processes we'll talk about. Yeah. 97 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 1: And another cool little um fact about when they first 98 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:17,479 Speaker 1: discovered uranium as well as radium is that there really 99 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:23,080 Speaker 1: uses Radium was used to make glow paint, and UH, 100 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,880 Speaker 1: uranium was used as a glaze, a decorative glaze, and 101 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:28,839 Speaker 1: then all of a sudden they're like, hey, guys, this 102 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 1: stuff is actually nuclear no wonder, it glows and it 103 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: makes a nice glaze. Yeah, there's there's also something called 104 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: vasoline glass, which is a collector's item, but it has 105 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:42,279 Speaker 1: like a radioactive glow to it because it has uranium 106 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:46,400 Speaker 1: in it. And then Fiesta weare like that celebrated twentieth 107 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: century dinner ware the red um used uranium in its 108 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:58,400 Speaker 1: glaze until what's it called Fia you know, the really 109 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:01,760 Speaker 1: right colored play and bowls and everything that we're like 110 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: really kind of big from the thirties until I think 111 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: it's still around today. You've seen it. Yeah, I like 112 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 1: that stuff. That's uh, we have some of that stuff 113 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 1: for like you know, barbecues and stuff exactly well instead 114 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: of fine china and Chris right. Um, So if you 115 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: if you got it in h nineteen seventy three or prior, 116 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: you may want to just update your collection because that's 117 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: stuff we we have like the new target versions of that. Okay, 118 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:36,320 Speaker 1: that's probably not radioactive so uranium. It was discovered in 119 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine by a subject of the Kingdom of Bohemia, 120 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: which is present day Czech Republic. His name was Martin 121 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:48,080 Speaker 1: Claproth and he was actually a German chemist. I guess 122 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: he liked Bohemia more. But um, he discovered it and 123 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:55,280 Speaker 1: named it uranium after the planet Uranus, which have been 124 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: discovered earlier in the decade. And I guess it was 125 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,200 Speaker 1: still just the hot new thing everybody's mind, because that's 126 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:04,960 Speaker 1: what uranium is named after. Yeah, and there's you know, 127 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,679 Speaker 1: there's different kinds of uranium U. It has different kinds 128 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: of isotopes, which basically are the different forms with different 129 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 1: number of neutrons. And depending on how stable each isotope is, 130 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,920 Speaker 1: each version is Some are more radioactive, some are more 131 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 1: likely to uh, to produce nuclear fissions, some are less likely. 132 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: I think you mentioned uranium two thirty five is the 133 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: money when for you know, for nuclear war and I 134 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:33,120 Speaker 1: guess for power production too, Right, that's the one you want. 135 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:35,800 Speaker 1: You don't want any of that garbage to thirty eight stuff, 136 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: but to thirty eight is the most abundant, so there 137 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: is more of that stuff. Uh, And you don't even 138 00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:46,880 Speaker 1: ask about thirty seven. So there's three that are naturally 139 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:51,080 Speaker 1: occurring to two thirty four And what's really cool about 140 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,120 Speaker 1: it is uranium two thirty five and uranium two thirty 141 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:59,720 Speaker 1: eight or what are called primordial um elements where they're 142 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: like genuine, real deal star dust, like they were created 143 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: in or shortly after the Big Bang. So the uranium 144 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: around here on Earth was like was around at the 145 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: beginning of the universe. It's way older than Earth, hence 146 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:18,600 Speaker 1: the name primordial and right exactly. And it's half life 147 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: get this, chuck, is three thousand years, which is you 148 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:26,160 Speaker 1: know why it's been around for longer than Earth. Did 149 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:31,920 Speaker 1: you get that joke? I mean, someone's gonna be mad 150 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:34,680 Speaker 1: at us, but oh man, they're gonna be so man. Now. Actually, 151 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,480 Speaker 1: the half life of two thirty five is about seven 152 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 1: million years and then two eight a half life. So 153 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,760 Speaker 1: if you take a gram of pure uranium two thirty 154 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 1: eight and store it in a container and you come 155 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: back and check on it in four and a half 156 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 1: billion years, only half of it will have decayed in 157 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 1: that time. It is ancient stuff, and it's pretty cool. 158 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,840 Speaker 1: We figured out a way to use that primordial element, 159 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:02,520 Speaker 1: this ancient stuff that was created in the Big Bang, 160 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:07,360 Speaker 1: to generate steam to turn a turbine to generate electricity. 161 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:11,640 Speaker 1: It's amazing. Uh. If you want to mind this stuff, 162 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 1: Australia is number one in the world. I think about 163 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: thirty percent of all uranium in the world is in Australia. Uh. 164 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:24,319 Speaker 1: Number two is Kazakhstan. Yeah, that was a terrible boor 165 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: maybe the worst I've ever heard. Wow. Number three is Russia. 166 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: I'm really ashamed of myself. And then number four is 167 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:38,680 Speaker 1: is Canada. It Russias got Canada beat Yeah, Russia's number 168 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:43,480 Speaker 1: three ahead of Canada this year. Okay, gotcha Gota? Yeah, 169 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: because I know, I guess last year Kazakhstan came up 170 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:49,760 Speaker 1: in the last Within about the last decade, Canada's got 171 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: the number one producing mind Cigar Lake mine. It produced 172 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:57,080 Speaker 1: something like thirtcent of the world's geranium single handedly in 173 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen, just this one mine in can Nada. Um. 174 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:05,719 Speaker 1: And Canada's uranium is so rich. Remember we rich? Is it? 175 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:10,080 Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked Chuck. Um. It's so rich that 176 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:12,520 Speaker 1: they have to use robots to mine it because the 177 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: humans can't get near it. It's too dangerous. Well, yeah, 178 00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:19,600 Speaker 1: this will be talking about that a little bit later. 179 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:23,319 Speaker 1: It's as rich as it comes, which is good for Canada. Sure, 180 00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,880 Speaker 1: the US doesn't have a ton of it. UM. I 181 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: believe that there are currently six states that have mining operations. Wyoming, 182 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,200 Speaker 1: New Mexico and Utah have the bulk of it, and 183 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: then there's also some in Arizona, Nebraska, and Texas. And 184 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:44,679 Speaker 1: Arizona's is interesting because there is UH in Grand Canyon 185 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,839 Speaker 1: National Park, there is uranium. And in twelve President Obama said, 186 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:52,320 Speaker 1: you know what, for twenty years, there's a ban on 187 00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: uranium uranium mining on this million acres of land around 188 00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:58,680 Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon. And then just a couple of months ago, 189 00:11:58,679 --> 00:12:01,679 Speaker 1: in February of this year, they passed the House passed 190 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:05,440 Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon Protection Act to make that permanent. And 191 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,680 Speaker 1: I think it now goes to Senate committee. UH. It 192 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:13,360 Speaker 1: passed generally, of course, our long party lines, with Democrats saying, 193 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: you know, we got to protect our land and Republicans saying, oh, 194 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:22,120 Speaker 1: it's fine, right. I saw I saw a press release 195 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:26,040 Speaker 1: from Mark Kelly, who's now a Senator from Arizona, and 196 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:30,000 Speaker 1: he and I think Kristen Cinema um co sponsored a 197 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:33,000 Speaker 1: bill because they're both from Arizona to basically do what 198 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:37,240 Speaker 1: that House bill did was protect or make that band permanent. UM. 199 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,000 Speaker 1: And in this press release, he said that the the 200 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:43,640 Speaker 1: Grand Canyon generated different one. I think it was a 201 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,560 Speaker 1: concurrent bill. Yeah, it was a different bill. I think 202 00:12:46,559 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: that there was the House bill in the Senate bill. 203 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:50,559 Speaker 1: I think they do this sometimes. It makes it happen 204 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,480 Speaker 1: faster because when it goes through committee, it gets they 205 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: come together and work out the differences, rather than you know, 206 00:12:57,800 --> 00:12:59,480 Speaker 1: it goes through the House and then it goes to Senate. 207 00:12:59,559 --> 00:13:03,320 Speaker 1: Can happen concurrent, Yeah, concurrently. I think that's what was 208 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:06,400 Speaker 1: going on. But anyway, the upshot of it is that 209 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,719 Speaker 1: the in the press release, Mark Kelly said that the 210 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:14,319 Speaker 1: Grand Canyon generates something like one point three billion dollars 211 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:17,800 Speaker 1: in tourist revenue for the state of Arizona every year, 212 00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: which is like, how long is it going to take 213 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:23,800 Speaker 1: you to to mind that much uranium? It just makes 214 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:26,560 Speaker 1: sense to protect the Grand Canyon and that just that 215 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:28,959 Speaker 1: case alone. Yeah, I mean, that was the point that 216 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:31,080 Speaker 1: that they were making on the Democrat side, is the 217 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:34,360 Speaker 1: amount of uranium was I can't remember, but it was 218 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: not that much. I think it was like less than 219 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:39,680 Speaker 1: one percent of the total in the United States, and 220 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: they were just saying the benefits just don't even come 221 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,079 Speaker 1: closed out weighing the risks here. Yeah, And I mean again, well, 222 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:47,720 Speaker 1: like I don't think I'm not, but I would say 223 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: we're not here to just knock uranium as a as 224 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:54,440 Speaker 1: an energy source or even uranium mining when it's done correctly. 225 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: But yeah, when when it butts up against maybe the 226 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:04,280 Speaker 1: most celebrated natural treasure in an entire nation, on an 227 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 1: entire continent, maybe just skip that one. I think is 228 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,080 Speaker 1: kind of my my take on it. Yeah, to squeeze 229 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,240 Speaker 1: just a little bit of urania there. Yeah, it's just 230 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: so shortsighted. I'm so sick of shortsightedness. To um. There's 231 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:22,120 Speaker 1: a cool quote in here, and this this was from 232 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 1: originally from the Housetop Works website, right ah, yeah, it 233 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 1: was as a matter of fact, Laurel Bells uh and 234 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:34,040 Speaker 1: this guy, Michael Ahmandson, he's a historian on the atomic age. 235 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:37,840 Speaker 1: He's talking about, you know, basically World War two coming 236 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:41,040 Speaker 1: around and uranium being the hot ticket. And he said, 237 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 1: uranium went from being a weed to a weapon. Uh, 238 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,480 Speaker 1: instead of serving as this useless pigment and glaze, became 239 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:50,320 Speaker 1: a strategic element of war. And I think that happened 240 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: pretty quickly when the arms race heated up at like Russia, 241 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,240 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, and the United States were really really 242 00:14:57,400 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: moving fast to get as much uranium as possible on 243 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:01,960 Speaker 1: their hands. And I mean, up to that point, uranium 244 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: was like again there it was used for pigment, a 245 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:09,040 Speaker 1: ceramic glaze, not for much. And then the Manhattan Project happens, 246 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,720 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, it's like every country in 247 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: the world is looking to see whether they have uranium 248 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 1: deposits or not. Because the USSR in the United States 249 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: one as much as it can get, not just even 250 00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,920 Speaker 1: necessarily to build up its stock, poled to keep the 251 00:15:22,960 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: other guy from getting his hands on it as well. 252 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: So the the the human introduction, the general public's introduction 253 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 1: to uranium was kind of jarring in that sense because 254 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: it came hand in hand with the atomic age. Uranium 255 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,320 Speaker 1: to thirty five was what was used as the nuclear 256 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:43,200 Speaker 1: core for um Little Boy, the bomb that was dropped 257 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,160 Speaker 1: on Hiroshima. So it was like it was a very 258 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: um memorable debut uranium had in the public mind for 259 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:53,400 Speaker 1: and it stayed that way for a while until it's 260 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: sort to become associated more with nuclear energy. Did we 261 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:02,480 Speaker 1: take a break? I think we should take a break. Yeah, 262 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 1: all right, let's do it. Stuff you should know, h 263 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: and sh stuff you should know. Alright. So let's say 264 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,080 Speaker 1: you want to mind uranium. The first thing you have 265 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: to do is find uranium. And you know you're looking 266 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: for these large deposits. It's you know, you don't open 267 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 1: up a mine unless you do the math and you 268 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 1: figure out that hey, there's enough. I mean, it's a 269 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:46,960 Speaker 1: really simple math formula basically like this is how much 270 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:48,960 Speaker 1: it costs to mind, and this is how much we 271 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: can possibly get from this place. Is it worth it 272 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,280 Speaker 1: or not? Because I think one and every one thousand 273 00:16:55,360 --> 00:17:00,400 Speaker 1: exploration sites of all metals and minerals are ever really 274 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: used as the mining site. So they're just they're poking 275 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,400 Speaker 1: around at first, and they're using these Uh you can 276 00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:10,199 Speaker 1: actually walk around with a Geiger counter on the on 277 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:13,159 Speaker 1: the ground and look for it close up after you 278 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:16,480 Speaker 1: have used something called a I'm gonna go with centilometer. 279 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's good. I was gonna say sentilometer because 280 00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:25,040 Speaker 1: it's based on the word scintillating, like exciting. You can 281 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:26,920 Speaker 1: do that from further range and that picks up gamma 282 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,240 Speaker 1: rays at at bigger distances, so you'll use that at first. 283 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,840 Speaker 1: Then you'll zero in with that Geiger counter. You'll check 284 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:36,600 Speaker 1: out the landscape and see how viable it is, and 285 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:39,840 Speaker 1: you know, you'll just enter that all into your little 286 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: spreadsheet or however you're determining that equation, and if it 287 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:48,160 Speaker 1: spits out, yes, good place for a mine, then they'll 288 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,760 Speaker 1: go through this really long, arduous process of getting permitted. Yeah, 289 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,920 Speaker 1: and the stuff that you're going to mind then becomes 290 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,840 Speaker 1: what's known as or bodies, which are deposits that are 291 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:02,879 Speaker 1: economically worth mining and extracting. Right, Um, and yeah, it 292 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:05,720 Speaker 1: does take a lot of time. I saw this article 293 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:08,680 Speaker 1: says between three and ten years to go from basically 294 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:15,760 Speaker 1: prospecting to production. I saw a ten to fifteen elsewhere, 295 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:20,520 Speaker 1: but right to add another year onto that one. But um, yeah, 296 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:23,480 Speaker 1: so say anywhere between three and fifteen years. I'm leaning 297 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,119 Speaker 1: more towards the ten to fifteen years side, just because 298 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:28,880 Speaker 1: of the permitting, having to deal with the public saying 299 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:30,800 Speaker 1: like you're not going to do that in my backyard 300 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Um, it's there. It's rather involved. It's 301 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: involved for any mind because you have to plan the 302 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,880 Speaker 1: mind too. Is You'll see in a second, like we've 303 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:42,480 Speaker 1: got to. You've got a plan what kind of mind 304 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: you're going to build. You have to plan the mind itself. 305 00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:46,520 Speaker 1: You have to figure out what to do with it, 306 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:48,320 Speaker 1: who you're gonna sell it to. Then you have to 307 00:18:48,320 --> 00:18:50,399 Speaker 1: go through the permitting process. Then you have to actually 308 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,320 Speaker 1: start to extract it. And one of the things that 309 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:55,199 Speaker 1: really jumped out to me, Chuck, was how few people 310 00:18:55,760 --> 00:19:00,439 Speaker 1: it actually takes to mine. Yeah, I mean this article 311 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:03,800 Speaker 1: made it sound like kind of a full scale operation. 312 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:06,200 Speaker 1: I'm sure they range in size, but it has to 313 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:08,080 Speaker 1: be a certain size to make it worth your while. 314 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 1: Like we said, so it seems like a hundred people 315 00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:13,480 Speaker 1: are less, yeah, total and run this mining. So the 316 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,399 Speaker 1: whole shebang, hundred people of the mine uranium, which I 317 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:21,200 Speaker 1: just thought that was really surprising. Yeah, and we should 318 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:24,440 Speaker 1: also mention too that, uh, they just don't go digging 319 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,840 Speaker 1: in there, like uranium could be mistaken for u when 320 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: it decays. Their byproducts called daughter elements radon and radium, 321 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,720 Speaker 1: and that can also set off the Geiger counter. So well, yeah, 322 00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:37,680 Speaker 1: they make they make super sure that it's uranium down 323 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:39,880 Speaker 1: there before they get coming. Right. Well, that's actually how 324 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,480 Speaker 1: they find it using the Geiger counters because because the 325 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 1: uranium itself it has such a long half life, it 326 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:49,880 Speaker 1: decays so slowly that it's it's daughter isotopes or daughter 327 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,800 Speaker 1: elements that are the ones where setting the Geiger counter off. 328 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:56,440 Speaker 1: But then you have to say, okay, well, how much 329 00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 1: uranium is in here, because I don't want that rate on. 330 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:00,919 Speaker 1: That's just a hazard to our health. Even though we 331 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: use it to find the uranium. How much uranium is 332 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:05,479 Speaker 1: here and how much rate on is there? Because if 333 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,399 Speaker 1: you find a really really ancient deposit that's just been 334 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: sitting undisturbed and it has been slowly but surely decaying, 335 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 1: all of those daughter isotopes are going to keep building up. 336 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:17,919 Speaker 1: So you might find a deposit that's a lot of 337 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,000 Speaker 1: raid on you don't want to have anything to do with, 338 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:24,359 Speaker 1: but not that much uranium to thirty five, you know. Yeah, 339 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,360 Speaker 1: So once you have found your stuff, you've got your permit, 340 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: you're all ready to go. It's ten to fifteen years on. 341 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:34,080 Speaker 1: You need to figure out and you probably already figure 342 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:37,560 Speaker 1: out at this point what kind of mind you're gonna have. Uh, 343 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: And there's a few different ones. I know, we've talked 344 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:44,080 Speaker 1: about mountain top removal mining and regular underground mining, um, 345 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: but open pit mining is one one thing they can do, 346 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: which is basically they blast away land and create a 347 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 1: big pit and then they go in there and they 348 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:58,520 Speaker 1: remove big uranium or chunks and say, here you go, 349 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:02,159 Speaker 1: go process it, go crush it up and slurry and 350 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,920 Speaker 1: what's that? Uh, what's that saying? They have? That's kind 351 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:08,320 Speaker 1: of cool. So apparently the miners themselves like, if you're 352 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:10,959 Speaker 1: a if you're a uranium miner, you're not just an 353 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:14,359 Speaker 1: ordinary miner, in no disrespect to ordinary miners, but you're 354 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:19,800 Speaker 1: especially trained, especially to recognize uranium because it's up to 355 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 1: you in an open pit process to pick the stuff 356 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,480 Speaker 1: out and and get as as much of the actual 357 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:29,560 Speaker 1: uranium as possible. So they do have this saying a 358 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:31,879 Speaker 1: mind is a terrible thing to waste. You want to 359 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,159 Speaker 1: get all the uranium out, and a waste is a 360 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,119 Speaker 1: terrible thing to mind. You don't want to mind the 361 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,919 Speaker 1: stuff that's not uranium. And so I added a little 362 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:42,520 Speaker 1: bit of extra to that, saying it's a lot more 363 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 1: succinct than that. But I think you get let's hear it. Oh, 364 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:50,879 Speaker 1: I thought you I thought you were gonna add even more. No, surprisingly, 365 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 1: I wasn't uh the um, I think you can also 366 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,399 Speaker 1: strip mine, Is that true? Yeah? Open pit and strip 367 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,440 Speaker 1: mining are like within if you've got the deposit within 368 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:07,240 Speaker 1: like fot of the surface. Um. But I think the 369 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:09,399 Speaker 1: big difference between those two, chucks, Strip mining is just 370 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 1: like taking the layers of soil off the top until 371 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:14,880 Speaker 1: you reach the deposit. Whereas open pit, like you were saying, 372 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,639 Speaker 1: you use you know, you blasted in the rubble. But 373 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: they're related, they're like, um, they're surface mining. I think 374 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,439 Speaker 1: they both qualifies that. Yeah. I mean then you've got 375 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:28,199 Speaker 1: underground mining, of course, which is just deeper and they 376 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:31,440 Speaker 1: you go down in those mine shafts or what's called adits, 377 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,920 Speaker 1: which are the vertical and horizontal tunnels, and it's just 378 00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: way more labor intensive. It's obviously a bit more expensive, 379 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,960 Speaker 1: it's a bit more dangerous, higher health risks. Uh. So 380 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: they would prefer out of those two two, probably open 381 00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:51,480 Speaker 1: pit mine. Well, yes, but it also depends on you 382 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: know who you're talking about prefers that. Like, if you're 383 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:57,680 Speaker 1: a miner, you probably prefer open pit because you're exposed 384 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:02,919 Speaker 1: open air. If you're um concerned agent of the e 385 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:07,440 Speaker 1: p A, you probably prefer a well run underground mind, 386 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 1: because if it's done correctly and built properly, it's probably 387 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,800 Speaker 1: going to have less of an environmental foot print then 388 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,919 Speaker 1: blowing a huge pit into the earth and getting all 389 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,680 Speaker 1: the radioactive chunks out. Yeah, and I think the one 390 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,600 Speaker 1: that's has the least environmental impact is in situ, which 391 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:29,920 Speaker 1: means in the original place. And this is interesting and 392 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,440 Speaker 1: that they basically, you know, they don't take these big 393 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: chunks out of the ground and process it. They use chemicals. 394 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,359 Speaker 1: They use baking soda and sort of like a club 395 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 1: soda mixture solution, and they they inject it into the 396 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,399 Speaker 1: rock through pipes and that separates that the uranium from 397 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,199 Speaker 1: the rock, but it turns it into a solution that 398 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,120 Speaker 1: they then pump back up to the surface. Yeah, there's 399 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:57,120 Speaker 1: injection wells that go down into the deposit because sometimes 400 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,399 Speaker 1: the like uranium can be kind of suspence ended in 401 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:05,840 Speaker 1: sand or sandstone or even gravel or near the water table. Yes, 402 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:08,960 Speaker 1: so that's the that's something that confounds it. Let's say 403 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,080 Speaker 1: you're going and you've got top soil and a little 404 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:12,480 Speaker 1: bit of bed rock, and then you've got a nice 405 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:17,240 Speaker 1: aquifer of fresh, unpolluted drinking water. Then below that you've 406 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:21,440 Speaker 1: got a big clay strip of impermeable clay. Then you've 407 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:23,800 Speaker 1: got the uranium, and you've got another clay st're pulling 408 00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:27,359 Speaker 1: that uranium deposits sand in between it. Right, your job 409 00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:32,640 Speaker 1: is to drill down past that aquifer, past the clay 410 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:38,399 Speaker 1: into the uranium sand injected with all that stuff, and 411 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: then leached the dissolved uranium out through a pump through 412 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:48,200 Speaker 1: that aquifer without leaking it into the aquifer, and then 413 00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: taking it off site for processing. And if you do 414 00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,960 Speaker 1: it right, you don't pollute the groundwater, and you don't 415 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:58,280 Speaker 1: disrupt or make the the clay permeable so that you 416 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 1: actually like let the uranium lead out of deposit. If 417 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,359 Speaker 1: you do it right, it would have the least environmental footprint. 418 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: It seems to me, probably the trickiest version of it. Yeah, 419 00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:13,520 Speaker 1: And I think sometimes when you combine too regular words, 420 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:15,560 Speaker 1: it just ends up sounding super gross. And I think 421 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:20,800 Speaker 1: leakey deposit fits into that category. Yeah, yeah, it definitely does, 422 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:27,040 Speaker 1: especially a moist leaky deposit. I'm sorry. Uh. Then there's 423 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,399 Speaker 1: heap leaching, which is terrible. It sounds like kind of 424 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:33,240 Speaker 1: the worst of the environmental as far as environmental impact goes. 425 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,880 Speaker 1: And that is when it sounds like, unless I'm reading 426 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,000 Speaker 1: this wrong, they extract all the ore from the ground, 427 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,600 Speaker 1: the big chunks, they bust it up on the ground 428 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,960 Speaker 1: above ground, and then they leach that pile with chemicals 429 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,600 Speaker 1: to separate it. So it's almost like it's almost like institute, 430 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,280 Speaker 1: but above ground they're just like, hey, let's just take 431 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,080 Speaker 1: it up here then leach it. Yeah, a lot of 432 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:56,720 Speaker 1: these have a lot to do with one another. I 433 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,280 Speaker 1: think with open pit you actually end up using heap 434 00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: bleaching a lot of times because you're taking those chunks 435 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,880 Speaker 1: that you blasted out of the earth, and you're you're 436 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,240 Speaker 1: pouring acid, spraying acid all over this pile, and the 437 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,480 Speaker 1: stuff that trickles down is caught by these these um 438 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,760 Speaker 1: pipes and your uraniums dissolved in there, or like you're saying, 439 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,919 Speaker 1: you're spraying it with hydrogen peroxide or club soda or 440 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:23,080 Speaker 1: something like that. So it's all kind of you know, 441 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,680 Speaker 1: you can do some of them in conjunction with one another, 442 00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: but the point is you're getting that uranium out of 443 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: the ground somehow, and then you're trying to you're starting 444 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,600 Speaker 1: the process of extracting it from the ore as best 445 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,960 Speaker 1: you can. That's right. Then you've got your stuff. Then 446 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,120 Speaker 1: you need to make it into different stuff. You need 447 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,879 Speaker 1: to mill it at a uranium mill. And what you 448 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,440 Speaker 1: want eventually to get to is and it's it's pretty 449 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,520 Speaker 1: funny that they name it this. It's uranium powder, but 450 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:55,840 Speaker 1: they call it yellow cake, which just sounds delicious. It says, 451 00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:58,320 Speaker 1: but if you ate that, you would be in big, big, 452 00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,320 Speaker 1: big trouble. Yes, very big trouble. And it's um it's 453 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,639 Speaker 1: very highly regulated, of course. UM. I think they like 454 00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:10,520 Speaker 1: to put these mills pretty close by the minds themselves. 455 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,840 Speaker 1: I think the US Atomic Energy Commission really kind of 456 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 1: aids people and saying, let's just bring it this all 457 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 1: close together, and you take that dry uranium or or 458 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:24,080 Speaker 1: and you just you mill it up basically. I mean, 459 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: it's not unlike a lot of mining operations. At the 460 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,560 Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, you're basically just trying 461 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,919 Speaker 1: to separate all the byproducts that are not byproducts, but 462 00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:36,439 Speaker 1: all the stuff that you don't want out of the 463 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:39,880 Speaker 1: way to get it gone. Yeah, that's that's what they're doing. 464 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,440 Speaker 1: They just it's just depending on what mineral you're after. Um, 465 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,639 Speaker 1: you're going to use different chemicals in um stages of 466 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:51,439 Speaker 1: chemicals in the process. Right, So yeah, when when you 467 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 1: produce this yellow kike, what you've basically done is separated 468 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,520 Speaker 1: natural uranium away from the ore, the rock that it 469 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: was part of or the sand that it was part of, 470 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,880 Speaker 1: and you you you compress it into these yellow cakes 471 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 1: and you send it off. So now you've got um 472 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,120 Speaker 1: milled and processed uranium, but it still isn't enriched. It's 473 00:28:13,119 --> 00:28:16,840 Speaker 1: still in its natural form and in about its natural percentages. 474 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,600 Speaker 1: So natural uranium. If you have like a thing a 475 00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:21,600 Speaker 1: yellow cake in your hands, again, don't eat it. It 476 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:26,320 Speaker 1: sounds delicious, it's just not it's not cheat cake. Which 477 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: even if I knew that was radioactive, I would still 478 00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:32,240 Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to help myself. I would still 479 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,560 Speaker 1: eat it. So you've got the yellow cake in your hands. 480 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,800 Speaker 1: What you're holding is nine three percent uranium two thirty eight, 481 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,240 Speaker 1: which is the one with the very very long half life, 482 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 1: that's not very radioactive as far as humans are concerned, 483 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:49,800 Speaker 1: just holding things. And then it's point seven percent uranium 484 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: two thirty five. And again there's at least one Canadian 485 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:59,760 Speaker 1: reactor that supposedly can create electricity through yellow cake. Um. Yeah, yeah, 486 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: that's how I was saying before that, that it can 487 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,600 Speaker 1: in its natural form, which is great because all of 488 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: this mining and processing it's it's potentially harmful enough to 489 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,800 Speaker 1: the environment. But wait until we tell you about enrichment, 490 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:14,520 Speaker 1: right right, yeah, because what did you say? It was 491 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,600 Speaker 1: point seven percent in its natural state and the Yeah, 492 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,400 Speaker 1: the goal is to get it and it's not like 493 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,040 Speaker 1: it has The goal is to enrich it to about 494 00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:26,000 Speaker 1: two to five, right, which is still that's significant, But 495 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: that's for if you want nuclear fuel, if you want 496 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:30,880 Speaker 1: it for military purposes, you have to enrich that point 497 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:36,400 Speaker 1: seven percent of uranium to thirty five up to and yes, 498 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,600 Speaker 1: so that's what I was saying. If you get your 499 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: hands on some military enriched uranium, you could fuel a 500 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,760 Speaker 1: lot of nuclear reactions with that. UM And the point 501 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,720 Speaker 1: of enrichment. Enrichment is just another word for concentrating, basically, 502 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,840 Speaker 1: where you're stripping out now from the yellow cake, not 503 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,440 Speaker 1: just the other stuff that's not uranium, but the all 504 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,800 Speaker 1: the uranium that's not uranium to thirty five five And 505 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,120 Speaker 1: so it takes a lot of yellow cake to get 506 00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 1: uranium to thirty five in enough abundance to actually produce fuel, 507 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,760 Speaker 1: like for example, if you are if you're upgrading yellow 508 00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:19,600 Speaker 1: cake a thousand pounds of yellow cake from points a 509 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: thousand pounds of yellow cake, if you're if you're enriching 510 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,840 Speaker 1: it up to five per cent. At the end of that, 511 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: you would have I think of fifty pounds of uranium 512 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:34,720 Speaker 1: two thirty five, the stuff you could actually use to 513 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:38,120 Speaker 1: make pellets out of in fuel and yeah, and then 514 00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: you'd have nine and fifty pounds of what's called depleted uranium, 515 00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:45,480 Speaker 1: which is mostly uranium to thirty eight, some uranium two 516 00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:47,200 Speaker 1: thirty five that you couldn't get out of there, and 517 00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:52,080 Speaker 1: all sorts of other heavy metals and potentially radioactive impurities. 518 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: And you can use that for your glaze, your fiesta air. 519 00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,800 Speaker 1: When you're enriching to what your byproduct is going to 520 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 1: be ultimately is called hexa uranium hexafluoride gas UH, and 521 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,200 Speaker 1: that will go into a cylinder and then as it cools, 522 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,920 Speaker 1: it becomes a solid, and that's where you have your 523 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:14,120 Speaker 1: ultimately your solid little you know, you can press it 524 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,920 Speaker 1: down and you've got your little fuel pellet and that interesting. 525 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:22,760 Speaker 1: They go from powder to gas too solid to fuel pellet, 526 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,960 Speaker 1: And so when you take that that enriched uranium, you 527 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 1: turn it into pellets. That's the fabrication process, and I 528 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,560 Speaker 1: believe yet another company is responsible for that. You just 529 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: get increasingly more specialized, and you even start out again 530 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,479 Speaker 1: with specialized miners who are mining the uranium, and then 531 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,120 Speaker 1: as it passes through hands to hands, you it's just 532 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:44,440 Speaker 1: getting more and more specialized. Uh. And then finally you 533 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: have either enriched uranium for nuclear fuel or enrich uranium 534 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:54,400 Speaker 1: to um explode significant portions of the planet up with. Yeah, 535 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,280 Speaker 1: what I'm curious about is if it's all a group 536 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,520 Speaker 1: profit share or if I if they just have a 537 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:04,200 Speaker 1: fee that they charged to mill and a fee to enrich, 538 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:06,479 Speaker 1: or if they're like, no, we're all in this together 539 00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:10,200 Speaker 1: and you know, we we get ultimately part of the profits. 540 00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:13,959 Speaker 1: I honestly don't know to tell you the truth. I mean, 541 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,480 Speaker 1: I'm someone will know. Yeah, somebody will know. I'm guessing 542 00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:21,200 Speaker 1: because it's even though there's federal regulations, I don't think 543 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:26,640 Speaker 1: the market itself is necessarily regulated. Um. Right, Oh that's 544 00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: not true. The market would have to be regulated, But 545 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:31,800 Speaker 1: I don't know if there's if it's regulated in the 546 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 1: sense that like it's it's not capitalists or there's there's 547 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:38,440 Speaker 1: not a capitalist drive pushing it out. I'm not sure. 548 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,880 Speaker 1: So we need to talk about health concerns for humans 549 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,400 Speaker 1: and then the environment. So should we do health and 550 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:47,400 Speaker 1: then break or break and then do both? I say 551 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:49,560 Speaker 1: break and do both, Chuck, because I think we've come 552 00:32:49,600 --> 00:33:05,160 Speaker 1: to a pretty good breaking point. Huzzah him. Stuff you 553 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: should know. Okay, so we've got this stuff, we mind it. 554 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:22,240 Speaker 1: First of all, we found it. I was really proud 555 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:24,640 Speaker 1: of us or even finding it, Chuck. And then I 556 00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:28,240 Speaker 1: was astounded that we were able to not only mill 557 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: the stuff, but also enrich it and then fabricated into 558 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:35,840 Speaker 1: nuclear fuel. And if you combine all those processes together, 559 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:37,960 Speaker 1: you have what's called the front end of the nuclear 560 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,160 Speaker 1: fuel cycle. And that's basically what we're talking about today, 561 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:43,280 Speaker 1: the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, which is 562 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: basically what you do with this stuff once it's a rich, 563 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,800 Speaker 1: enriched or if it's used as spent fuel. Um, that's 564 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:52,960 Speaker 1: a whole other podcast that I would really love to 565 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,880 Speaker 1: do someday totally, and our particular the stuff you should 566 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:02,600 Speaker 1: know operation it's very fishing because we sent Jerry out 567 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:07,640 Speaker 1: ahead and her hair glows green. Then where we've had her, 568 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:13,200 Speaker 1: we've got our spot. She's like Hamana hammana hammana plus tax. 569 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,000 Speaker 1: Oh Man. My friend Meredith, by the way, told me 570 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,080 Speaker 1: someone alerted her to that, and because she was the 571 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 1: one who used to say that, her and my friend Bob, 572 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: and she told me what it meant, and now I 573 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,359 Speaker 1: can't remember. I think it was just some I think 574 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,279 Speaker 1: Bob said it was like someone he would say it 575 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,839 Speaker 1: when he saw a hot guy or whatever. And if 576 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,000 Speaker 1: he was, you know, a hot guy would be Hameda 577 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,840 Speaker 1: hammana hammeda and a super hot guy would be Hameda 578 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,239 Speaker 1: hammeda plus tax. That's pretty great. So it's just a designation. 579 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:46,680 Speaker 1: I think. I gotta love Bob. He lives in New York. 580 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,480 Speaker 1: The best you know, Bob moves around between New Jersey 581 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:52,440 Speaker 1: and Portland. I think when you met him it was 582 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,760 Speaker 1: in Portland, but you may have met him in both actually, 583 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,200 Speaker 1: because I associate him with New York for some reason. Well, 584 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,040 Speaker 1: he always due to Portland is a I'm not sure 585 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:03,799 Speaker 1: why Bob moved to Portland, because he's a very New 586 00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: York guy. He grew up in the New Jersey area. 587 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: But I'm not sure where he is right now. I 588 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:13,440 Speaker 1: need to get in touch with Bob right home. Alright, 589 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:17,719 Speaker 1: So health concerns for humans, you know, we there. You know, 590 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 1: people can debate whether or not we should mind uranium 591 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: all day long. But there's neither side that says it's 592 00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:27,719 Speaker 1: fine for people, it's good for a water supply, like 593 00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,920 Speaker 1: everyone acknowledges that it has serious health impacts for us 594 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 1: and our planet. Yeah, and one of the big ones 595 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,560 Speaker 1: is again remember it occurs that co occurs with its 596 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:41,880 Speaker 1: daughter um isotopes or its daughter elements, and in particular, 597 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: raid on is a real problem because rate on is 598 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:48,600 Speaker 1: a daughter of radium two twenty six rate on gases. 599 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:53,279 Speaker 1: Radium to comes from uranium to thirty eight decay. Right, 600 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: there's I think fourteen daughters and they follow this predictable 601 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:02,880 Speaker 1: stage is uranium decays. Rate On gases the second leading 602 00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:08,840 Speaker 1: cause of lung cancer after smoking tobacco. It's the number 603 00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:13,279 Speaker 1: one cause of lung cancer among non smokers. And you 604 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:16,480 Speaker 1: can actually get it from just sitting around in your house. 605 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,319 Speaker 1: You It's the problem with it is you can inhale it, 606 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:22,760 Speaker 1: and when you inhale it into your lungs, it becomes 607 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:27,840 Speaker 1: I believe, polonium um, which decays itself in your lungs 608 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:32,600 Speaker 1: and releases gamma radiation and alpha particles and beta particles 609 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,279 Speaker 1: and does all sorts of terrible stuff to you which 610 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:39,279 Speaker 1: can give you lung cancer over time. But like I said, 611 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:40,800 Speaker 1: you can get it from sitting in your house. You 612 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:42,879 Speaker 1: should actually get your house check for rate on once 613 00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,879 Speaker 1: in a while um, because it's possible there's a a 614 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:50,880 Speaker 1: uranium deposit under your house somewhere and that radon has 615 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,320 Speaker 1: made its way up. When you crack open the earth 616 00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:58,160 Speaker 1: to get to purposefully get to a uranium deposit, radon 617 00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:00,600 Speaker 1: is gonna come out in aces, which makes it a 618 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:05,920 Speaker 1: very hazardous thing for uranium miners. Yeah, and if you 619 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,520 Speaker 1: work at an underground mine especially, they're gonna be I 620 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,319 Speaker 1: don't know how often, but they're gonna be checking and 621 00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,480 Speaker 1: testing for rate on gas all over that work site. 622 00:37:15,520 --> 00:37:18,480 Speaker 1: It's not just like right where they're they're digging or 623 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,040 Speaker 1: whatever blasting. It's gonna be in the in the break room, 624 00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,000 Speaker 1: It's going to be in the kitchen, in the in 625 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: the office trailers. Like they're they're testing for rate on 626 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:33,920 Speaker 1: gas everywhere at least here in the US it will 627 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,040 Speaker 1: be man, I A'm gonna eat none of those os, 628 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,600 Speaker 1: maybe some cheat cake from publisher. I don't even start 629 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:46,399 Speaker 1: draw the line. Um, uranium itself actually is it's it's 630 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: toxicity is really the biggest danger there. Uh and like 631 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:53,759 Speaker 1: ingesting that you can have serious kidney problems. Um, but 632 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:57,400 Speaker 1: like you said, usually radium and radon are the biggest. 633 00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,480 Speaker 1: I mean that stuff can get in your bones. Yeah, yeah, 634 00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:05,440 Speaker 1: it's a real problem. Um. The thing is so like uranium, 635 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:09,279 Speaker 1: when it releases alpha particles, those things kind of tend 636 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,440 Speaker 1: to bounce right off for your skin. So with with uranium, 637 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:16,600 Speaker 1: remember how it's not particularly radioactive. That's if it's just 638 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,200 Speaker 1: sitting there outside, like even if you're holding in your hands. 639 00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,839 Speaker 1: It becomes particularly problematic when it's broken and you either 640 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,319 Speaker 1: inhale it like you're inhaling rate on or you ingest it. 641 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:28,680 Speaker 1: It just gets on your fingers or your food or something. 642 00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: It's this invisible thing, but it goes into your body 643 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 1: and it reeks havoc in particular kidney damage because it 644 00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:36,960 Speaker 1: gets into your blood. Your poor kidneys have to filter 645 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,480 Speaker 1: it out of the blood. And it's like I'm not 646 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,399 Speaker 1: equipped for this kind of thing. Um, it might even 647 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:47,080 Speaker 1: say Hamana hameda hammeda itself, and then you have real 648 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:51,160 Speaker 1: serious kidney problems after that. Yeah. And since part of 649 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:55,759 Speaker 1: the process involves breaking it up, like that's the whole goal, Uh, 650 00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:57,920 Speaker 1: then you know it's it's a it's an issue. But 651 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:02,640 Speaker 1: also it also is problematic with depleted uranium two, which 652 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:07,319 Speaker 1: again is the byproduct of uranium enrichment. It's a big, big, 653 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:10,719 Speaker 1: old dense hunk of uranium two thirty eight and a 654 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:13,400 Speaker 1: bunch of other heavy metals. And they use that for 655 00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:16,600 Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. They use it for UM shielding 656 00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:19,680 Speaker 1: to shield out other other radiation. They use it as 657 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:24,680 Speaker 1: weights and airplanes, they use it um for bullets. It's 658 00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,640 Speaker 1: like tank piercing bullets. And I was reading a V. 659 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:32,239 Speaker 1: A Um post about how some Gulf war veterans may 660 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:39,160 Speaker 1: have been exposed to depleted uranium UM toxicity because if 661 00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:42,120 Speaker 1: they came under friendly fire because some of the shells 662 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,640 Speaker 1: were coated and depleted uranium, because it's so dense, it'll 663 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,000 Speaker 1: go right through a tank. But it also has this 664 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:52,160 Speaker 1: terrible secondary side effect where that means that the depleted 665 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:54,440 Speaker 1: uranium breaks up and it can be inhaled, it can 666 00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 1: get ingested, it can go into your skin. So even 667 00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:59,800 Speaker 1: if you weren't killed by the depleted uranium shell piercing 668 00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:02,200 Speaker 1: the tank that you're in, you may actually get cancer 669 00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,000 Speaker 1: later on or kidney failure down the road because of 670 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:08,000 Speaker 1: that depleted uranium. So there is like a real problem 671 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,239 Speaker 1: with it. And then above all that too or in 672 00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 1: addition to it, it's a it's toxic just because it's 673 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,560 Speaker 1: a heavy metal as well, which you don't want anywhere 674 00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:20,239 Speaker 1: in your in your body. Yeah, and this is you know, 675 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,560 Speaker 1: we haven't even really touched on the environmental impact. Obviously. 676 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:29,160 Speaker 1: These minds that were around and then abandoned before you know, 677 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,840 Speaker 1: the sort of mid nineteen seventies are super dangerous places 678 00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:36,200 Speaker 1: because they leave behind something called tailings. These are those 679 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,200 Speaker 1: leftover pieces of ore that they don't use, and they 680 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:42,000 Speaker 1: have those byproducts that we were talking about, like radon 681 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:46,319 Speaker 1: and radium, but also polonium and sometimes even arsenic. And 682 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:50,680 Speaker 1: if it was pre nine five or so, an abandoned 683 00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:54,719 Speaker 1: uranium mind was not cleaned up very well. Um, they've 684 00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:56,520 Speaker 1: had to do a lot of work since then to 685 00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:58,399 Speaker 1: clean this stuff up. Like things are way different now 686 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:00,600 Speaker 1: and they've gone back to try and clean and stuff up, 687 00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:03,600 Speaker 1: but it's um, you know, the wind and the rain 688 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:07,360 Speaker 1: carries the stuff away, it gets into the water supply. Uh. 689 00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,400 Speaker 1: And it's like I think they said something like, you know, 690 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,279 Speaker 1: it takes forty years to restore the environment back to 691 00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,080 Speaker 1: its natural state. And I hear that, I'm like, no way, man, 692 00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,840 Speaker 1: you can. You can never restore it to its natural state, 693 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:21,680 Speaker 1: like as if it had never happened. I don't I 694 00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:23,279 Speaker 1: don't buy I'm with you. I don't buy an either. 695 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,160 Speaker 1: That seems a really short time for a radioactive substance 696 00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:30,319 Speaker 1: contaminating groundwater for pize's sake, you know, but this is 697 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:34,439 Speaker 1: something that's especially affected uh Native American population and even 698 00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:39,239 Speaker 1: more specifically the Navajo Nation, because a lot of uranium 699 00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:43,080 Speaker 1: minds are in the you know, hundreds of thousands of 700 00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:48,240 Speaker 1: acres of the Navajo land. I think seventy million pounds 701 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:51,640 Speaker 1: of uranium reserves in the nineteen seventies were on Navajo land. 702 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:56,239 Speaker 1: And in on July six, nineteen seventy nine, there was 703 00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:00,080 Speaker 1: the biggest expulsion of radioactive material in the history of 704 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:02,439 Speaker 1: the United States when a dan broke at the church 705 00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:08,200 Speaker 1: Rocky Ranium Mill operated by the United Nuclear Corporation under uh, Well, 706 00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:10,799 Speaker 1: I say, Andrew Jimmy Carter's watch. It's not like it 707 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:12,920 Speaker 1: was his fault or anything, but he is the one 708 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,160 Speaker 1: of the people who first said, hey, we should really 709 00:42:15,239 --> 00:42:17,000 Speaker 1: use the stuff for nuclear power. Yeah, and I mean 710 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:20,360 Speaker 1: this happened while everybody was thinking about Three Mile Island, 711 00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:22,719 Speaker 1: and still no one ever heard of It happened four 712 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,920 Speaker 1: months after Three Mile Island and three Mile Island that 713 00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,000 Speaker 1: you know, I think we should do one on like 714 00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,799 Speaker 1: nuclear releases a whole episode on that. But Three Mile 715 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:35,120 Speaker 1: Island scared the Bejesus out of everybody because all of 716 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:39,720 Speaker 1: a sudden, this green nuclear energy was really threatening and scary, 717 00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,480 Speaker 1: and it really put a dent in the public opinion 718 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:47,680 Speaker 1: on nuclear powder power. But with the the Church Rock release, 719 00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:51,239 Speaker 1: it just dwarfed Three Mile Islands released, and still I 720 00:42:51,280 --> 00:42:53,839 Speaker 1: hadn't heard of it until two days ago when I 721 00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:58,120 Speaker 1: started researching this, And it's like it was a huge deal, 722 00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:02,719 Speaker 1: like people dying, well, like going It contaminated the river, 723 00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:08,560 Speaker 1: like ninety three million gallons of toxic radioactive sludge tailings 724 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:12,040 Speaker 1: from uranium mining just contaminated the river. And they did 725 00:43:12,239 --> 00:43:16,480 Speaker 1: tests of the drinking water eighty miles downstream of this release, 726 00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:21,480 Speaker 1: and they found that it had seven thousand times the 727 00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:26,360 Speaker 1: acceptable radioactivity of drinking water, the acceptable drinking water standards, 728 00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:30,040 Speaker 1: seven thousand times eighty miles downstream. And just because it 729 00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,759 Speaker 1: happened on this Navajo land, everybody's like, I hadn't heard 730 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:36,080 Speaker 1: of that. Well, and they I mean, all of it 731 00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:38,800 Speaker 1: as a crime, but the real crime at the center 732 00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:41,320 Speaker 1: of it is is they didn't even notify them hardly. 733 00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:45,239 Speaker 1: They did a really bad job of even letting them know. So, like, 734 00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:49,280 Speaker 1: that's eighty miles away, you're getting radioactive fallout in the water. 735 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,319 Speaker 1: But right there where it happened, they were walking into 736 00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,080 Speaker 1: the river like they always do, and they were their 737 00:43:55,120 --> 00:43:57,560 Speaker 1: skin was literally burned on contact, and they were getting 738 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:00,359 Speaker 1: boils because from this Yellow River all of us. Yeah, 739 00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:03,839 Speaker 1: it's just it's so shameful and it's and whoever wrote 740 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:05,839 Speaker 1: this article, I think was from the Navajo Nation and 741 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:09,120 Speaker 1: they said, yes, it was an accident, but Exon Valdis 742 00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:12,480 Speaker 1: was an accident, and they're always accidents. Three Mile Island 743 00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:14,960 Speaker 1: was an accident. But that's kind of the point. It's like, 744 00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:19,000 Speaker 1: accidents happen, and when an accident happens at a uranium operation, 745 00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:22,120 Speaker 1: it's catastrophic. And I mean, like even the best designed 746 00:44:22,239 --> 00:44:24,640 Speaker 1: mine operation has to figure out what to do with 747 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:28,279 Speaker 1: those tailings, all that toxic sludge and radioactive sledge and 748 00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:30,799 Speaker 1: all gets combined. And if you don't design your damn right, 749 00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:32,839 Speaker 1: your damn is gonna fail. But even if you do 750 00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:35,600 Speaker 1: design your damn right, how long is it going to 751 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,880 Speaker 1: stick around? Even under the best of circumstances. You know, 752 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:41,760 Speaker 1: this is not just your normal stuff. This is stuff 753 00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:44,840 Speaker 1: that's going to be radioactive for a very long time. 754 00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,560 Speaker 1: So it's a it's a real problem. Like figuring out 755 00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:49,719 Speaker 1: what to do with this on the back end is 756 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:52,919 Speaker 1: a huge problem that humanity just keeps kicking down the road. 757 00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:56,560 Speaker 1: You know what other two words sound gross together? Let 758 00:44:56,560 --> 00:45:00,719 Speaker 1: me let me hear it. Nuclear release. That's not as 759 00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:03,760 Speaker 1: bad as what was the other one. I don't even remember. 760 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:06,839 Speaker 1: I think it was like, already forgot have moist in it? 761 00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,440 Speaker 1: Well you added moist, but I don't know, I always 762 00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 1: add moist. Uh, just to put a tag on all this. 763 00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:19,880 Speaker 1: They do require companies, I believe, to um engage in 764 00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:23,319 Speaker 1: what's called the reclamation bond, which basically says, hey, we're 765 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:25,880 Speaker 1: set us setting aside so much of our budget to 766 00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:27,719 Speaker 1: come back and clean this up, so they can't at 767 00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:31,279 Speaker 1: the end say we went broke. Sorry, So they set 768 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:33,960 Speaker 1: aside that money up front, supposedly, and the fines are 769 00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:38,239 Speaker 1: pretty steep, up to a quarter of a million bucks um, 770 00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:40,160 Speaker 1: you know, if you break these land management rules. So 771 00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:42,399 Speaker 1: they you know, all the incentive is there for them 772 00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,200 Speaker 1: to do a good job, and their reputation is at stakes. 773 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:47,200 Speaker 1: So we don't want to make it appear like it's 774 00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,880 Speaker 1: just willy nilly, they're just doing whatever they are. Accidents 775 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,920 Speaker 1: and they they a company wouldn't work again if they 776 00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:57,319 Speaker 1: have one of those accidents. So but but it's you know, 777 00:45:57,600 --> 00:45:59,279 Speaker 1: it's also it's just one of those things. Well, it's 778 00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:02,200 Speaker 1: also a demonst station of like it matters who is 779 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:04,919 Speaker 1: in charge of the country at any given point in time, 780 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:06,839 Speaker 1: because you have to have a will to enforce those 781 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,279 Speaker 1: regulations that are meant to keep communities safe, or you 782 00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:12,719 Speaker 1: don't and you just let business do its thing. And 783 00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:15,720 Speaker 1: that seems to go hand in hand with an increase 784 00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:19,560 Speaker 1: in accident you know. Ye, so you got anything else, 785 00:46:20,000 --> 00:46:22,040 Speaker 1: I got nothing else? A little bit of contempt but 786 00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:26,240 Speaker 1: I I have I have hope that we can figure 787 00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:28,239 Speaker 1: it out because I think that nuclear energy is not 788 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:32,359 Speaker 1: inherently problematic, it's just our understanding of how to use 789 00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:35,440 Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, we did a good episode. Thanks. I 790 00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:41,160 Speaker 1: think so too, Chuck. Uh well, thanks, thanks? Yeah, Okay, 791 00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:44,200 Speaker 1: how about thanks for the last one. Thanks for nothing 792 00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:46,759 Speaker 1: for this one. I guess if you want to know 793 00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,080 Speaker 1: more about uranium and uranium mining and all that jazz, 794 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:52,120 Speaker 1: go onto the Internet and then keep an ear out 795 00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:56,800 Speaker 1: for our episode on accidental nuclear releases sometime in the future. 796 00:46:57,200 --> 00:46:59,000 Speaker 1: Since I said sometime in the future, it's time for 797 00:46:59,080 --> 00:47:04,720 Speaker 1: listener mayo, I'm gonna call this from a teacher. Hey guys, 798 00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:06,680 Speaker 1: my name is Emilyam, a full time high school teacher 799 00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,360 Speaker 1: from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I want to thank you for 800 00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:11,480 Speaker 1: a number of things. First of all, your podcast on 801 00:47:11,520 --> 00:47:15,520 Speaker 1: stamp collecting was hilarious. I was in stitchous thinking about 802 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:18,640 Speaker 1: Josh's joke about FDR coming up with terrible stamp ideas 803 00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,680 Speaker 1: for the Postmaster General. Additionally, as you know, this pandemic 804 00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:24,839 Speaker 1: has been so hard on nearly everyone, but I think 805 00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:28,279 Speaker 1: maybe hardest on students and teachers. Uh. As teachers We've 806 00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:30,279 Speaker 1: gone from me honored thank to Dedmired a year ago 807 00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:32,200 Speaker 1: for all the quick work we are able to do 808 00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:34,600 Speaker 1: when we first shut down, to being vilified for not 809 00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:37,600 Speaker 1: doing enough. It's been exhausting. At the end of the day, 810 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,960 Speaker 1: it's been hard to find much joy in anything, the 811 00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:43,600 Speaker 1: exception your podcast. The excitement and enthusiasm I have for 812 00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:45,480 Speaker 1: knowledge is the only thing my brain seems to up 813 00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,160 Speaker 1: space for these days, especially as of late, I found 814 00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:51,040 Speaker 1: myself literally laughing out loud more often at your jokes 815 00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:55,200 Speaker 1: and one liners. Uh, at least truly tired obviously. Uh. 816 00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:58,319 Speaker 1: This is so invaluable to me, as most days end 817 00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:00,160 Speaker 1: with me feeling like crying or calling in to a 818 00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:03,480 Speaker 1: ball and sleeping. Also, your most recent post on your 819 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:07,800 Speaker 1: respective Instagram accounts showing you all together give me hope 820 00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:10,640 Speaker 1: that things are returning to normal soon. All this to say, 821 00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,760 Speaker 1: you're providing such an essential service to people around the globe. 822 00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:15,719 Speaker 1: For most of us who have been confined to our 823 00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,880 Speaker 1: homes and towns, you bring the world to us. I 824 00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:22,600 Speaker 1: am and will forever be grateful that is Emily Gunch, 825 00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:27,920 Speaker 1: a truly tired teacher, and Emily that that means more 826 00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,400 Speaker 1: to us than you will ever understand, So thanks for 827 00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:32,880 Speaker 1: sending that. Let's also really well said. I'm glad that 828 00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:37,120 Speaker 1: this is like a teacher totally and uh if you 829 00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:39,920 Speaker 1: don't know what she's talking about. We posted photos of 830 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:42,440 Speaker 1: the three of us together again, including a picture of 831 00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:48,719 Speaker 1: Jerry at Josh mcclark's Instagram and at Chuck the podcasters. Wow, nice, Chuck. 832 00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:50,320 Speaker 1: I didn't know we were going to get an insta 833 00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:54,960 Speaker 1: shout out. We never plug our instagrams, but why not? 834 00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:58,560 Speaker 1: Why not? Why not? You just don't see a picture 835 00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:03,560 Speaker 1: of Jerry. Yeah, people tape over her mouth, over it, 836 00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:08,839 Speaker 1: scowling at her, and she looks sheepish. People really did 837 00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:14,440 Speaker 1: lose their minds to see Jerry's face, her beautiful face. Um, 838 00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:17,319 Speaker 1: so okay. If you want to get in touch of this, 839 00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:22,359 Speaker 1: like ms Gunch did right, Yes, gunch rhymes with lunch. 840 00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:25,759 Speaker 1: She's so nice. I nailed it, you can send us 841 00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:32,320 Speaker 1: an email to Stuff Podcasts at iHeart radio dot com. 842 00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:34,720 Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. 843 00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:37,719 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart 844 00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:40,719 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 845 00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:41,480 Speaker 1: favorite shows.