Precious groundwater now threatened by fracking for uranium, too
When it comes to fracking for yellowcake, even more pressing than shaky economics is the obvious potential for environmental contamination. The process is not only extremely water intensive, as is typical of fracking, but it’s also happening at a shallow depth. Unlike the Eagle Ford’s oil and gas reserves, which are miles underground, the in situ uranium mining is taking place at the same level as local groundwater supplies.
Fracking for Yellowcake: The Next Frontier? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-rubin/fracking-for-yellowcake-t_b_2612418.html Jeffrey Rubin 02/04/2013 It works for oil and natural gas, so why not frack for uranium too? After all, America relies on foreign uranium just like it depends on foreign oil.
In the U.S. these days, it seems like you can sell almost anything if you spin it as part of the pursuit of energy independence. Enter Uranium Energy Corp. A junior mining company with Canadian roots, UEC is developing the newest uranium mine in the U.S. And it’s counting on fracking to do it.
Texans, in general, are no strangers to fracking. UEC is operating in the heart of fracking country, south Texas’s Eagle Ford basin, one of the most prolific shale plays in the country. Instead of oil and gas, though, UEC (recently profiled by Forbes Magazine) is fracking for yellowcake.
The technology is basically the same. It involves injecting a mixture of highly pressurized water and sand into an underground formation in order to break open fissures in the rock that allow the energy riches within to be extracted. In this case, it’s a slurry of uranium ore that’s then dried and processed into powdery yellowcake, an intermediate product that eventually becomes fuel for nuclear reactors.
Of course, the very idea of fracking for yellowcake begs the question–just because you can do something, should you? The world isn’t exactly running short of uranium. Prices tell you that much. Uranium prices have plunged from more than $90 a ton before the last recession to just more than $40 a ton following the Fukushima disaster. Friendly countries like Canada and Australia are able to ramp up supply, as can less friendly countries like Kazakhstan. Yellowcake is also exported by Niger (part of the reason, according to some, that nuclear-powered France is taking such an interest in neighbouring Mali right now.)
What’s more, the emergence of cheap natural gas from shale plays is making nuclear energy less attractive to U.S. power utilities. Many are considering shuttering some high cost nuclear stations and switching to cheaper natural gas, just as they’ve been doing with a number of coal plants in recent years.
When it comes to fracking for yellowcake, even more pressing than shaky economics is the obvious potential for environmental contamination. The process is not only extremely water intensive, as is typical of fracking, but it’s also happening at a shallow depth. Unlike the Eagle Ford’s oil and gas reserves, which are miles underground, the in situ uranium mining is taking place at the same level as local groundwater supplies.
According to the International Energy Agency, the amount of fresh water used for global energy production will double over the next twenty-five years. Whether it’s Alberta’s oil sands that run on water from the Athabasca River or the countless gallons used to frack underground stores of oil, gas and now even uranium, it’s easy to see why.
Hydraulic Fracking is a source of radiation pollution, too
“We’ve known for a long time that there is radiation coming back in the wastewater”
Among the radioactive material often found in drilling wastes is radium 226, which can cause cancer, anemia and cataracts, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
DEP backtracks on radiation issue Times online,January 25, 2013 By Rachel Morgan HARRISBURG — For months, the state Department of Environmental Protection denied that radiation in wastewater from natural gas drilling was an issue. On Thursday night, the state announced plans to study the effects of radiation in natural gas drilling wastewater.
After continued questioning by Shale Reporter regarding radioactivity in wastewater, Gov. Tom Corbett’s announcement of a 12-month DEP study of radioactive wastewater was a surprise. The DEP had consistently denied radiation was even an issue……. In the governor’s unexpected announcement Thursday evening, DEP officials said they will begin sampling and analyzing fracking flowback for radioactivity, testing everything from fracking wastewater, drill cuttings, treatment solids and sediments at well pads and wastewater treatment and disposal facilities.
They also plan to analyze radioactivity in pipes, well casings, storage tanks, treatment systems and trucks. http://www.timesonline.com/news/local_news/dep-backtracks-on-radiation-issue/article_9e5853a5-325b-5f9a-83ed-24aea5811db0.html
An Increase in Radiation Monitoring for Fracking, NYT, Jan 25 13 By JON HURDLE Pennsylvania will step up its monitoring of naturally occurring radiation levels in water, rock cuttings and drilling wastes associated with oil and gas development in a yearlong study that will be peer-reviewed, the state’s environmental agency reports.
The study will also assess radiation levels in the pipes, well casings, storage tanks, treatment systems and trucks used by the natural gas industry, which has drilled thousands of wells in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale over the last five years….
Hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting chemicals and water under enormous pressure into underground shale formations to extract gas or oil, got under way in Pennsylvania in 2008.
In New York, state officials are currently weighing whether to allow the drilling process to begin. The state’s health commissioner is conducting a review of whether the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has adequately addressed potential impacts on public health. Continue reading
Contamination of seafoods, following nuclear and oil spill disasters
Frankenfish Surface in Japan and the Gulf of Mexico Years following some of the world’s worst environmental disasters, marine life remains contaminated, Energy Digital 25 Jan 13, Two years after the catastrophic Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in Japan, fish with 2,500 times the legal limit for radiation in seafood are turning up near the plant.
Since the incident, fishing around Fukushima has been banned, along with beef, milk, mushrooms and vegetables produced in surrounding areas. The sale of certain kinds of seafood and produce have resumed, while scientists continue to monitor the spread and impact of radiation from the disaster.
Marine chemist Ken Buesseler, leading the research from the US-based Woods Hole Institution, has warned that Fukushima fish “may be inedible for a decade,” according to the Guardian. They found “elevated levels” of radiation in the marine environment, and cited that 40 percent of the fish caught near the nuclear plant were contaminated with radioactive caesium above government safety limits.
Related Story: Radioactive Japanese Tuna Found off California Coast
Meanwhile, in the US, the debate continues over the safety of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico nearly three years after BP’s offshore rig exploded, dumping some 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. Not to mention the two million gallons of dispersants used to clean up the spill that were up to 52-times more toxic than the oil itself. Read More in Energy Digital’s December/January Issue http://www.energydigital.com/oil_gas/frankenfish-surface-in-japan-and-the-gulf-of-mexico
USA’s EPA gave miners more than 1,500 permits to pollute deep aquifers
In a parched world, Mexico City is sending a message: Deep, unknown potential sources of drinking water matter, and the U.S. pollutes them at its peril.
Message from Mexico: The US is Polluting Water it May Someday Need to Drink, World News Curator , January 25, 2013 By OryanWNC. By Abrahm Lustgarten from ProPublica Mexico City plans to draw drinking water from a mile-deep aquifer, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican effort challenges a key tenet of U.S. clean water policy: that water far underground can be intentionally polluted because it will never be used.
U.S. environmental regulators have long assumed that reservoirs located thousands of feet underground will be too expensive to tap. So even as population increases, temperatures rise, and traditional water supplies dry up, American scientists and policy-makers often exempt these deep aquifers from clean water protections and allow energy and mining companies to inject pollutants directly into them.
As ProPublica has reported in an ongoing investigation about America’s management of its underground water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued more than 1,500 permits for companies to pollute such aquifers in some of the driest regions. Frequently, the reason was that the water lies too deep to be worth protecting. Continue reading
EPA permits fracking for uranium to go ahead in USA
Goliad skeptics have been fighting UEC’s plans for five years. At Goliad the uranium ore is located just 400 feet deep within the same rock as a groundwater reservoir that ranchers tap for drinking water, both for themselves and their livestock. Water, not oil, is the region’s long-term liquid gold. “We are running out of water; I don’t want mine ruined,” said one rancher who asked not to be named. “When you’re out of water, you’re out of everything.”….
A 2009 study of Texas in situ mines by the U.S. Geological Survey … found no instance in which there wasn’t more selenium and uranium in the water than before mining.
Energy’s Latest Battleground: Fracking For Uranium This story appears in the February 11, 2013 issue of Forbes. No tour of Uranium Energy Corp.’s processing plant in Hobson, Tex. is complete until CEO Amir Adnani pries the top off a big black steel drum and invites you to peer inside. There, filled nearly to the brim, is an orange-yellow powder that UEC mined out of the South Texas countryside. It’s uranium oxide, U3O8, otherwise known as yellowcake. This is the stuff that atomic bombs and nuclear reactor fuel are made from. The 55-gallon drum weighs about 1,000 pounds and fetches about $50,000 at market. But when Adnani looks in, he says, he sees more than just money. He sees America’s future.
“The U.S. is more reliant upon foreign sources of uranium than on foreign sources of oil,” says Adnani,……
Adnani insists that he can close the yellowcake gap through a technology that is similar to the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that has created the South Texas energy boom. Fracking for uranium isn’t vastly different from fracking for natural gas. UEC bores under ranchland into layers of highly porous rock that not only contain uranium ore but also hold precious groundwater. Then it injects oxygenated water down into the sand to dissolve out the uranium. The resulting solution is slurped out with pumps, then processed and dried at the company’s Hobson plant. Continue reading
Radioactive water to be dumped into Pacific Ocean by TEPCO
TEPCO plans to dump water stored at Fukushima Daiichi into
Pacific http://enformable.com/2013/01/tepco-plans-to-dump-water-stored-at-fukushima-daiichi-into-pacific/ TEPCO has announced that it plans to dump contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean after processing it to reduce radioactive materials to legally permissible levels. By “processing”, TEPCO means once-high radioactive content has been reduced considerably, but not completely.
The plant has already released enormous amounts of highly contaminated water directly into the ocean from a plethora of leaks from the reactor buildings. Outside experts are seriously concerned about the contaminated water that is released, and have warned there may well be lasting impact on the environment.
The utility says the operation is necessary due to concerns that they will run out of capacity to store highly contaminated water which continues to accumulate. After the water has passed through the crippled units, it is processed through the SARRY system to remove cesium, but other systems designed to remove other radioactive materials have been overwhelmed by the complexity and concentration of contamination found at Fukushima Daiichi.
TEPCO estimates show that the volume of contaminated water required to be stored on site will likely triple over the next three years.
Questions have been raised if TEPCO would be able to gain the necessary approval from local municipalities and other parties who have raised concerns about plans to dump the water into the ocean.
In December 2011, the utility was forced to scrap a previous plan to dump water into the sea following fierce protests from fishing groups.
Toxic nuclear waste dumps in the Arctic Kara Sea
Russia explores old nuclear waste dumps in Arctic By Laurence Peter BBC News, 24 Jan 13, The toxic legacy of the Cold War lives on in Russia’s Arctic, where the Soviet military dumped many tonnes of radioactive hardware at sea.
For more than a decade, Western governments have been helping Russia to remove nuclear fuel from decommissioned submarines docked in the Kola Peninsula – the region closest to Scandinavia.
But further east lies an intact nuclear submarine at the bottom of the Kara Sea, and its highly enriched uranium fuel is a potential time bomb.
This year the Russian authorities want to see if the K-27 sub can be safely raised, so that the uranium – sealed inside the reactors – can be removed.
They also plan to survey numerous other nuclear dumps in the Kara Sea, where Russia’s energy giant Rosneft and its US partner Exxon Mobil are now exploring for oil and gas.Seismic tests have been done and drilling of exploratory wells is likely to begin next year, so Russia does not want any radiation hazard to overshadow that. Rosneft estimates the offshore fossil fuel reserves to be about 21.5bn tonnes.
‘Strategic imperative’
The Kara Sea region is remote, sparsely populated and bitterly cold, frozen over for much of the year. The hostile climate would make cleaning up a big oil spill hugely challenging, environmentalists say.
Those fears were heightened recently by the Kulluk accident – a Shell oil rig that ran aground in Alaska…….. “In the US the Arctic gets great public scrutiny and it’s highly political, but in Russia there is less public pressure.” Continue reading
Fukushima radiation in seafood chain – record level in rockfish
Record cesium levels measured in Fukushima rockfish, signaling radiation woes in food chain far from over in Japan, Part of: Nuclear meltdown in Japan Less than two months shy of the second anniversary of the devastating triple nuclear meltdown at Japan’s coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant, a fish containing more than 2,500 times Japan’s legal limit for radiation has been caught by the plant’s operator in waters near the wrecked facility. Bellona, Charles Digges, 21/01-201
The ‘murasoi’ fish, similar to a rockfish – indicating an amount of cesium measuring 254,000 Becquerel per kilogram, or 2,540 times Japans limit for radiation in seafood – was caught at a port inside the plant by its owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) Friday, according to AFP.
The utility also released a photo of the fish, caught near an unloading point north of the No. 1 through No. 4 reactors. No fishermen operate in the nuclear plant’s port.
Friday’s catch shatters the previous record for wildlife contamination as a result of radioactive contamination, which was was 25,800 Becquerel of cesium per kilogram found in two greenlings caught about 20 kilometers north of the plant in August 2012, the Asashi Shimbun newspaper reported.
Other countries are also increasingly distressed by the amount of irradiated marine life turning up near their coastlines along the Pacific Rim: Over the summer, Russia’s state English language television station RT reported concern over fish caught off its coast near Japan.
In May, a tuna contaminated by low levels of radiation was found near the California coast, Reuters reported……. http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2012/fukushima_rockfish
Removing uranium from water – Kansas residents willing to pay for this
Kansas communities pay to rid water of uranium, Enquirer Herald, 20 Jan 13, The Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Residents across Kansas have safer drinking water thanks to steps their communities have taken to rid the water of harmful elements such as uranium and arsenic. But those residents also are facing considerable hikes in water bills to pay for the improvements.
Lakin residents are paying water rates about 10 times higher than they had before the city began construction on a $6.5 million water treatment plant to eliminate naturally-occurring uranium from the drinking water.
Rates are up about three times in Clay Center, where the city has built a $10-million treatment plant also to deal with uranium, which can occur in some aquifers….. http://www.enquirerherald.com/2013/01/20/2276642/kansas-communities-pay-to-rid.html
South Dakota: precious water endangered by “in-situ” uranium minng
as for water quality, we know from the history of in situ leach
uranium mining that the groundwater will be contaminated. Leaks and
spills are common. Every in situ uranium mine has them. And at the end
of the process — when things have supposedly been “cleaned up” — the
groundwater has always been left polluted with radioactivity and with
things like arsenic, selenium and lead.
FORUM: In situ uranium mining will pollute water
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/forum-in-situ-uranium-mining-will-pollute-water/article_ecc53035-6f34-5293-8d5f-08b0e619bee0.html
January 12, 2013 Plans to mine uranium north of Edgemont remain
controversial — and with good reason. The company involved, Powertech
Uranium, is a foreign corporation that has never mined anything. They
want to use 9,000 gallons per minute of our water. And they will leave
the water contaminated with radiation and other things — like every
other “in situ” leach uranium mine in U.S. history.
In situ leach mining involves pumping a solution underground, where it
loosens the uranium from the rock, and then pumping the uranium-filled
solution back to the surface. Continue reading
At long last – cleanup of radiation area at Staten Island
Radiation clean up to start in Staten Island’s Gateway National
Recreation Area, SI Live.com By Deborah Young/Staten Island Advance
January 11, 2013 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The long-awaited survey and
clean-up of radiation-contaminated ballfields, along with more than
200 acres of green space in Gateway National Recreation Area’s Great
Kills Park should begin next week, according to the National Park
Service (NPS), under whose stewardship the land falls.
In a shift from a plan announced last year, when Park Service
contractors were slated to survey the area and then come up with
clean-up recommendations for a later time, the process set to begin
Monday will include both the identification of hot spots and the
remediation of toxins…..
As of November, six radium spots had been removed from the 223-acre
swath of the park that had once been landfill, with the primary
contaminant found to be Radium-226, a radionuclide formerly used in
medical treatment.
After that, even more potential hot spots were discovered, prompting
the National Park Service to rethink its more limited plan, and
instead include more sweeping investigations of the area, as well as
immediate elimination of the radiation.
The radiation-affected area — which comprises a large portion of the
488-acre park — has been closed to the public.
Meanwhile, environmentalists, avid users of the park, local residents
and lawmakers have demanded for years to know why the remediation
process has been so slow….
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/radiation_clean_up_to_start_in.html
Full radiation decontamination of Fukushima region an impossible task
Asahi: We are reminded anew of the huge scale of contamination released from Fukushima plant — Impossible to recover pre-disaster environment — Radiation levels not dropping in certain areas http://enenews.com/asahi-reminded-anew-huge-scale-contamination-released-fukushima-plant-impossible-recover-pre-disaster-environment-radiation-levels-dropping-areas
(Subscription Only) Title: EDITORIAL: More data needed to make decontamination work effective
Source: Asahi
Date: January 09, 2013
Decontamination work is in progress in areas affected by the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but cases have been uncovered of workers dumping contaminated soil, vegetation and water into nearby rivers or other places without properly collecting them.
[…] One problem is that radiation levels are not dropping in certain areas. Another problem is that additional manpower is required, but hiring more workers isn’t financially viable.
Thinking about those problems, we are reminded anew of the huge scale of contamination caused by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
It is impossible to recover the pre-disaster environment, and it is unrealistic to think that all affected areas can be decontaminated. […]
VIDEO Uranium mining in Virginia, and its risks for North Carolina
Hawood suggested the General Assembly write and pass a strongly-worded
resolution against uranium mining to try and influence Virginia’s
lawmakers in Richmond
VIDEO Uranium mining in Virginia would affect NC Rivers
http://myfox8.com/2013/01/10/uranium-mining-in-virginia-would-affect-nc-rivers/
January 10, 2013, by Mitch Carr EDEN, NC —
Virginia’s General Assembly is considering lifting a moratorium on
mining uranium that has been in place since 1982, and doing so could
have a dramatic effect on North Carolina’s recreational waterways.
The potential mine is on a farm near Gretna and Chatham in
Pittsylvania County, Virginia. The company attempting to mine the ore
that contains the uranium, Virginia Uranium, Inc., estimates the lode
to be 119 million pounds.
…….., many of the locals don’t support it, and an hour and a half
southwest of Chatham in Eden, NC, the Dan River Basin Association
definitely does not support it.
Tiffany Hawood is the executive director, and she agrees mining
uranium will bring jobs to the area.
“If you’re talking about jobs for cleaning up environmental risks,
then yeah, maybe,” Hawood said.
Hawood believes the mining puts the Dan and Smith Rivers, which run
through Rockingham County and are popular for tubing and canoeing, at
risk.
“I can’t think of one good reason to do this,” Hawood said.
North Carolina would experience the fallout of a mining disaster but
has no authority to stop Virginia from getting rid of the ban.
Hawood suggested the General Assembly write and pass a strongly-worded
resolution against uranium mining to try and influence Virginia’s
lawmakers in Richmond…. http://myfox8.com/2013/01/10/uranium-mining-in-virginia-would-affect-nc-rivers/
Coal mining’s radiation hazard should be recognised, too
The nuclear lobby is out to convince us that ionising radiation is not harmful .
This is a lie.
However, if we are seriously concerned about ionising radiation, we need to recognise that it is a serious threat from sources other than the nuclear industry, as well.
Two other serous sources of ionising radiation are medical radiation, and mining operations, especially coal.
There is an argument for medical radiation. Used judicially, medical radiation is beneficial in diagnosis, treatment, and pain relief in illness.
There really is no longer an argument for coal mining, given it’s role in global warming. But also, attention should be paid to the menace of ionising radiation in coal ash. – Christina Macpherson 7 Jan 13
EPA agrees to look into town’s radiation concerns SF Gate, January 6, 2013 TOWN OF PINES, Ind. (AP) — Federal environmental officials will investigate concerns about radiation levels in a northwestern Indiana community after residents and activists raised concern. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified local officials late last month that the EPA would study the levels in The Pines early this year, The Times reported (http://bit.ly/UmBcgA ).
Matthew Ohl, the EPA’s project remedial manager, said NIPSCO, Brown, Inc., Ddalt Cop. and Bulk Transport Corp. proposed sampling in “certain residential yards in the Town of Pines.” The study was requested by a local environmental panel, which heard a presentation in November by Paul Kysel and Larry Jensen of PINES, or People in Need of Environmental Safety.
Jensen, a former EPA employee, conducted his own study of radiation levels and concluded that levels in the town are elevated. The PINES group believes coal ash, which was used as fill in roads, could be the cause of elevated radiation levels. The Pines is home to a landfill operated by Brown Inc. and holds about 1 million tons of fly ash created by NIPSCO’s burning of coal in its power plants. The facility was cited in 2000 by the EPA for contaminating drinkingwater …..http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/EPA-agrees-to-look-into-town-s-radiation-concerns-4170911.php#ixzz2HJy2xPxC
USA – look out for radioactive young bluefin tuna
Bluefin Tuna Off California Coast Tainted With Fukushima Radiation (But Scientists Say It’s Okay To
Eat) laist.com, 5 Jan 13, Scientists ran tests on bluefin tuna off the coast of California and found traces of radiation from last year’s Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
Scientists examined the muscle tissue of 15 Bluefin tuna who were swimming off the shores of San Diego in August 2011 and were stunned to find traces of caesium-134, according to BBC News. That radioactive element can be directly tied to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster a few months earlier.
Scientists say these fish were likely spawned in Japanese waters and picked up the pollution before heading to feeding grounds in the eastern Pacific ocean. “It’s a lesson to us in how interconnected eco-regions can be, even when they may be separated by thousands of miles,” Nicholas Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at Stony Brook University told BBC News. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences….. tuna caught in coming months will be monitored for radiation levels, since younger fish might have spent more time in Japanese waters and received higher levels of contamination. http://laist.com/2013/01/05/bluefin_tuna_off_california_tainted.php
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