South Africa is the world's largest uranium exporter; it mines it at a concentration of only 0.05%, 10 times poorer than the ore mined in the US, and 100 times poorer than in Australia. But since the tailings come to the surface from the gold mines anyway, it becomes economical to process them for their uranium content, even if it is low.
[Incidentally, half the uranium mined in Colorado, and perhaps in the US, is mined as a byproduct of some other mineral, such as vanadium ore or phosphates, which is an additional death blow to the already dead Gofman theory on keeping radon under the ground by foregoing nuclear power.]
The ERGO plant described above has the gold and uranium production lines side by side in the same building, remotely controlled from the same control room. Both use solvent processes (with different chemistries) to extract the product. But there is an amusing psychological difference between the two parallel lines.
On the uranium side, the final product is a liquid compound of uranium and ammonia, shipped in cisterns for manufacture into yellow-cake. One would have to bathe in its radioactivity for many hours to achieve a reasonable probability of contracting cancer¾decades later.
On the gold side, the solvent is cyanide, which has been used in gold refineries for decades. A tiny fraction of an ounce will kill, within seconds, anybody who inhales or ingests it. What if somebody pinches a half-ounce for use on his mother-in-law?
Stupid question. The real danger is on the other side of the plant. What if somebody pockets, while nobody is looking, a hundred thousand gallons of the uranium compound, smuggles it into his garage to make yellowcake, secretly builds himself a little molten salt or liquid-metal reactor at the local stadium breeds it into plutonium, and... boom!
The thing is always to discern the real dangers.
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Vol. 8, No. 2
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 8 Issue/No.: Vol. 8, No. 2 Date: October 01, 1980 04:08 PM Title: Phase Three
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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