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Publicatie Laka-bibliotheek:
Uranium Mining. The Hidden Holocaust Against Future Generations (1997)

Auteur	Hans-Peter Schnelbogl
Datum	mei 1997
Classificatie	6.01.2.20/56 (URANIUM - WINNING/VOORRAAD/PRIJS)
Voorkant

SUMMARY:

This paper shows that the uranium tailings (the waste from uranium milling) will 
inflict death and suffering on numerous members of more than 20~000 future 
generations.

These dangers from the tailings, though repeatedly indicated, have not been brought 
into the public discussion -- not by the various reports, like the Ranger Inquiry
and the ASTEC report, and not at all by the various environmental impact statements.

This submission presents some simple calculations and conclusions, that demonstrate 
that safe management of uranium tailings is both not possible and not economically 
viable.

The danger of those tailings comes from their radioactivity which interacts with 
the biosphere and in particular with the human health in a variety of ways.

The radiation problem is severely compounded by the extremely long-term hazard 
posed by these types of radiation: The tailings remain dangerously radioactive 
for more than 500,000 years. Safe storage for such time spans is impossible.

These tailings are being produced in very vast quantities. The tailings eventually 
accumulated by the Olympic Dam mine (Roxby Downs) could cover the whole 
of Tasmania with a 1.5 mm film of finely milled particles.

Based on studies by the US Environmental Protection Agency, estimates of 
the radiation cancer deaths for various future scenarios have been made. We 
conclude that the tailings from the Roxby Downs mine may cause some 9 million 
future radiation cancer deaths!

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