Depleted Uranium Contamination

One of Uranium’s largest environmental impacts is the quality and quantity of surface water near Uranium mines. Once Uranium is extracted from mills, a significant amount of Uranium products are released into rivers and lakes. This significantly increases the concentration of Uranium in surface water. Radon, a product produced from the decaying of Uranium, if consumed by the animals, can create serious lung and stomach issues. Inhaling radon has a similar effect. Uranium, once the material dissolves into the soil, can also significantly influence the soil quality in a given area. Soil, after this process, can’t provide moisture for plant growth and many underground living organisms die. Considering the Olympic Dam Mine is next to a large river, these issues are occurring more and more near the

Uranium, element number 92 on the periodic table, was used in the atomic bomb used in the attack of Hiroshima. Plutonium, the 94th element, was used the second bombing of Nagasaki. Uranium's atoms are unusually

Uranium was discovered by Martin Klaproth in 1789. Klaproth was a German Chemist that discovered Uranium in a mineral call pitchblende. It was named after Uranus, the planet, which had been discovered eight years earlier. Uranium occurs in most rocks in concentrations of 2 to 4 parts per million and is common in the Earth’s crust. This highly density element is used in keels of yachts and as counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as well as for radiation shielding. This element principal uses is in fuel for nuclear reactors and the main raw material for nuclear weapons. Depleted uranium is the waste product of uranium enrichment in nuclear reactors. It is the residue left in massive quantities when bomb-grade uranium is

During World War II uranium and other highly radioactive supplements, were in very high demand. These radioactive minerals were used in a way that caused what is called a nuclear explosion. Though,

Your vehicle requires plenty of clean fuel to run. Contaminated fuel will eventually become clog up your fuel injectors. When this happens, your vehicle engine may not get the proper amount of fuel at the correct pressure to run at peak performance. This hurts performance as you drive around the Reno and Sparks area. One of the causes of the buildup of harmful deposits on valves and in the combustion chamber is contaminated fuel.

When uranium enters our body through inhalation, the uranium has the ability to dissolve within the lungs, which can lead the uranium to be transported by the blood to other parts of the body such as the spleen, brain, kidney, and other organs. Uranium can remain within the kidney and brain for a significant amount of time because of its high concentration, while remaining for a shorter period of time within the plasma. A previous study on the action of salt has lead researchers to discover that sodium bicarbonate and sodium citrate can lessen the toxicity of uranium. Citric acid and citrate salts have the ability to protect the body from uranium toxicity with possible side effects such as diarrhea and nausea. While researchers have tried to develop different methods to reduce or remove uranium toxicity, not all chelating compounds can treat uranium effects [3]. These researchers have found that some metals have many biological functions in contrast to uranium which has limited biological activity. Considering that many researches focus on the biological aspect to find ways to remove heavy metals such as uranium, this has led to the detection of the uranyl species and treatment of radioactive waste. Because of this few bacteria have the ability to reduce the oxidation state of uranium in salts such as soluble +6 oxidation to

Uranium is a chemical element that is silvery-white with an atomic number of 92 having 92 protons and neutrons. In Colorado the Uravan Mineral Belt is the oldest uranium mining in America. It was also has 1,200 historic mines that produce over 63 million pounds of Uranium from 1948 to 1978. Uranium is a hazardous element the reason so is because if inhaling uranium decaying products causes lung cancer also uranium mill tailings contain that contain radioactive ,materials, notably radium-226, and heavy metals which leach out into groundwater and test from mill tailings from water shows that that water contamination are at hundreds of times the government’s acceptable level of drinking water. Uranium plants or mill tailing plants also

While the ability of particles to extract uranium was tested experimentally, the uranium removal efficiency achieved was 96%. By that the purification of wastewater has accomplished, the other objective was achieved by uranium recovery, by desorption experiments on the U-NPs. The recovery of uranium reached 89%.

Arsenic is an invisible killer that many people may be drinking as I write this article. It was such a problem for the United States, that in 2001, the US Environmental Protection Agency had to lower the maximum level of arsenic allowed in drinking water from 50 micrograms per liter (ug/L) to 10 micrograms per liter (ug/Liter) (Ryker, 2001). Despite this change in policy, this issue of arsenic contamination continues, and is even more widespread in many more places outside of the United States. Unlike the U.S., underdeveloped countries like India, Cambodia, and Bangladesh cannot rely on the usual testing’s more developed countries are accustomed to. For example, a study in Bangladesh (2009) showed 13% (1,883) of their findings (14,492 samples) had an arsenic concentration that exceeded 50 ug/Liters (Rodrigues et al, 2016). The old maximum stated by EPA back in 2001. Information like this is then used, in hopes that it creates more of an importance

There are many things to consider as possible challenges when recreating this experiment. Contamination is one of the major ones, if for any given reason human error occurred when taping the mating agar plates, contamination could be produced and that sample will not be usable. Another major possible human error that can occur in this experiment is not remembering to put the hyphae side pf the fungal down, which could end up in no spores or improper growth. Some less major but important to take into account are squashing errors. If too much pressure was applied to the squash then the fruiting body would be dispersed everywhere and it will not be possible to make a reliable measurement. In the contrary, if not pushed down hard enough the spores

This semester in ENGL 112, I chose to researcher the effects of uranium. I chose this topic because I learned about the element earlier in the year while sitting in Physics class. Uranium is a very interesting element that has been applied to many applications in today’s world. While in Physics, the class even had a debate on whether uranium has affected society for the better or for the worse. My side in the debate was that uranium has affected society for the worse. Uranium has created many bad problems for the world, and it could potentially create more problems. Uranium is a radioactive element that is the only metal on Earth that breaks down and creates new elements. Before the element was discovered, it affected humans while they were mining for stone. Some of the stone was even used to build schools and homes. The radiation then affected the families and children throughout their lives without them even knowing it.

Natural Radioactivity some say is a result of a nuclear reaction, which occurs spontaneously. It is the process of Natural Radioactive Decay in which their nucleus breaks apart, undergoing nuclear decay. This happens because the force that usually holds the nucleus together with the protons and neutrons repelling one-another is not able to do its job. So the nucleus breaks apart undergoing nuclear decay. All radiation exists in nature and is found in soil, rocks, water, air and vegetation. The biggest source of Natural Radioactivity is airborne radon, which is inhaled at a dose of 1.26 mSv/a per year. Radon is quite deadly and is the reason over 3,000 deaths every year from lung cancer.

Depleted uranium is used for military purposes because of its incredible density (HPS, 2010, p.1). The material is harder than steel and serves as an excellent armor piercing round. The material is not used for its radiation producing properties or to poison the target. It has been used around the world for military purposes since before the 1980s. Health risks to soldiers using the depleted uranium ammunitions are considered low because the round produces very low radiation which is not in excess of acceptable levels (HPS, 2010, p.2). However depleted uranium can be dangerous in two ways: if it is embedded in the body or material near the impact site is inhaled. Both ways require that the material enter the body. This means that residual radiation put off by an RDD explosion using depleted uranium would not be an issue, just the debris and dust created by the explosion. If a person inhales the dust or gets a piece of the depleted uranium lodged under the skin the radiation produced will, over time, lead to significant health effects, most

With the pressure we had been under until now somewhat abated, we retired early that evening, and slept blissfully. We awoke the next morning rested and refreshed, ready for whatever the day might bring.

This is why uranium is so popular within the higher ups of countries, especially the military.