Uranium in Quebec “Leave it in the Ground”

1. Uranium in Quebec“Leave it in the Ground” a slideshow prepared by Dr. Gordon Edwards for the AENQ 2013 Congress with photos and graphics by Robert Del Tredici Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

2. Uranium Exploration in Quebec A Model of the Uranium Atom

3. Shut Down Permanently Dec. 28 2013

4. Moratoria on Uranium Mining • 1980 B.C. temporary –> 2008 permanent • 1982 Virginia USA –> ban still in place 1981 Nova Scotia –> Law 2009 permanent • 2010 International Physicians for the prevention of nuclear war calls for a global ban on uranium 2012 Eeyou-Istchee (Cree) permanent 2013 Quebec ?

5. What You Can Do To Help 1. Resolution calling for a moratorium -- • already passed by dozens of municipalities • endorsements by Cree communties? • endorsements by Inuit communities? • letters of support to the Mayor of Amqui? 2. Martine Ouellet announcement Thursday in Chibougaumau – can you attend? • “generic” environmental hearings on U • temporary moratorium on U mining

6. Internet Resources 1. Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility • www.CCNR.org/uranium 2. Quebec sans uranium • www.quebecsansuranium.org 3. United against Uranium in James Bay/Eeyou-Istchee • www.facebook.com/bjeisansuranium 4. WISE Uranium Project • www.wise-uranium.org

7. I. History of Uranium – Radioactivity & Decay Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

8. A Model of the Uranium Atom

9. Henri Becquerel 1896 accidentally discovered that uranium ore is radioactive

10. What is Radioactivity? •Most materials have stable atoms (they never change). •Radioactive materials have unstable atoms (they will change). •Unstable atoms will disintegrate (suddenly and violently). • The moment of disintegration is when biological harm is done. • One “becquerel” indicates one disintegration (decay) per second. • The “half-life” is the time it takes for half the atoms to disintegrate.

11. Atomic

12. (gamma ray) .. Atomic (alpha or beta)

13. A gamma ray is like an x-ray, but more powerful. highly penetrating A beta particle is like a sub-atomic bullet. moderately penetrating An alpha particle is like a subatomic cannon ball. slightly penetrating Alpha and Beta particles are INTERNAL hazards..

14. Ball of Plutonium Marie Curie 1898 discovered radium and polonium, -- two of the decay products of uranium

15. What is a Decay Product? • When disintegration (decay) occurs,a radioactive atom is transmuted – it is fundamentally altered. • So in a radioactive material,new atoms are being created; they are called “decay products” or “progeny”. • If a given decay product is also radioactive, then it will have its own decay products, and so on and so on . . . . . . this gives rise to a “decay chain” or “decay series”.

16. Uranium Decay Chain Here is the decay chain of uranium-238, the most common type of uranium found in nature.

17. Uranium Decay Chain On a weight-by-weight basis, all of the uranium decay products are much more radioactive and much more dangerous than uranium itself. The 3 types of polonium are the most dangerous of all.

18. Uranium Decay Products 1. Radium -the silent killer Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

19. Radium dial painters Dial Painters 1920 Radium-226

20. Radium dial painters Radium, like calcium, goes to the bones. Dial painters suffered from radium poisoning. Phase 1: Fatal anemia (from bone marrow) Phase 2: Bone cancer (from skeletal damage) Phase 3: Head cancer (sinuses and mastoid) Phase 3 is caused by radon gas produced in the bones by radium decay then carried by the blood to the head where the radioactive gas builds up. In 1920s, radium sold for $100 000 per gram. Now it is discarded as a waste byproduct. BCMA: “Radium is a superb carcinogen”

21. Uranium Decay Products 2. Polonium -most radiotoxic element Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

22. Alexander Litvinenko 2006 Polonium-210

23. Los Alamos National Laboratory's Chemistry Division http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/84.html Polonium-210 Weight by weight it is about 250 billion times as toxic as hydrogen cyanide.

24. Dose Coefficients for an adult (ingestion) in microSieverts per Becquerel (official figures from EURATOM 96/29) Polonium 210 Lead 210 Radium 226 Plutonium 239 Uranium 238

25. American Health Physics Society Polonium-210 … is probably the cause of up to 90 percent of the deaths attributed to tobacco. ( lung cancers, heart attacks, strokes )

26. 3. Radon -public health hazard Uranium Decay Products Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

27. Yellowcake Road

28. Navajo Miner Underground Miner (Navajo) Radon

29. “Alpha Radiation” from a tiny radioactive particle in lung tissue

30. Although radon is a gas . . . Radon Progeny (chart) Radon Progeny (chart)

31. Although radon is a gas . . . Radon Decay (chart) its decay products are solids and lodge in the lungs . . . Radon Progeny (chart)

32. Although radon is a gas . . . Lung Dose (chart) its decay products are solids and lodge in the lungs . . . Radon Progeny (chart) . . . in fact 85% of the lung dose is from alpha-emitting polonium

33. 4. Uranium Tailings -dangerous for 500,000 years Uranium Decay Products Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

34. Uranium Shovel

35. Key Lake Mine Gaertner Pit, Key Lake Uranium Mine, Saskatchewan

36. Stanrock Tailings Pile, Elliot Lake Ont. (70 million tonnes)

37. Uranium Decay Chain . .

38. Uranium Decay Chain 85% of the radioactivity in the ore Is left behind in the uranium tailings . .

39. Uranium Decay Chain Thorium-230 replenishes the inventory of radium, radon and polonium for hundreds of thousands of years Half life = 76 000 years . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40. WASHINGTON (June 2007) — A preponderance of scientific evidence shows that even low doses of ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays and X-rays, are likely to pose some risk of adverse health effects, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council aa 2007 press release announcing publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ BEIR-VII Report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

41. . . . such radiation can cause DNA damage that eventually leads to cancers. However, more research is needed to determine whether low doses of radiation may also cause other health problems, such as heart disease and stroke, which are now seen with high doses aa 2007 press release announcing publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ BEIR-VII Report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

42. "The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of exposure below which low levels of ionizing radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial," said committee chair Richard R. Monson, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston. aa 2007 press release announcing publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ BEIR-VII Report on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

43. 2. History of Uranium –Bombs and Reactors Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility www.ccnr.org

44. Nuclear Weapons and Bomb Fallout

45. A Model of the Uranium Atom

46. Splitting of the Atom

47. Mushroom Clouds

48. Quebec 1942 Quebec Agreement President of the U.S.A. Prime Minister of Britain Prime Minister of Canada Quebec Accord : tripartite cooperation in the making of the first atomic bombs

49. Fat Man and Little Boy Fat Man: Nagasaki (Plutonium) 1945 Little Boy: Hiroshima (HEU Uranium)

50. The Yellowcake Road (Canada) Yellowcake Road