![]() The phenomenon of radioactivity was accidentally discovered in 1896 when Henri Becquerel put a rock in a drawer. These are two quite different properties, however, and they should not be confused. I would now like to explain why.īoth the commercial value and the dangers of uranium are based on two extra-ordinary characteristics which it possesses. As you will see, the scientific evidence fully bears out this conclusion. Why? Because uranium is the deadliest metal on earth. I hope that those attending this conference will write to the Prime Minister of Canada (c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0A6) and to the Premier of Saskatchewan (c/o Saskatchewan Legislature, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) asking them not to continue the expansion of this industry. The price has been falling steadily for more than fifteen years, and is now at an all-time low. ![]() This, despite the fact that the price of uranium is lower today than it has ever been. In the province of Saskatchewan, there are environmental assessment hearings going on now, this year, having to do with the potential opening of five new uranium mines. Canada is also one of the very few countries in the world in which uranium mining is currently expanding. Today, Canada remains the world's largest producer and exporter of uranium, ostensibly for peaceful purposes that is, as fuel for civilian nuclear reactors. It was the only use uranium had at that time. By 1956, uranium had become the fourth most important export from Canada, after pulp, lumber and wheat and every ounce of it was used to produce A-bombs and H-bombs for the American - and, to a lesser extent, the British - nuclear weapons programs. Indeed, the beginning of the nuclear weapons program marked the beginning of the uranium industry. The first uranium processed by Canada was used to produce nuclear explosives for the atomic bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Moreover, a great deal of it has occurred in my homeland, Canada, which was the first country to produce and process uranium as such. Thus the entire history of the mining of uranium has taken place during my lifetime. Until the last fifty years it was produced only as a byproduct. It is a metal, like all other metals, except that it had no commercial value before the mid-twentieth century. What do we know about uranium? Well, uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element on earth. Health Effects of Radioactive Materials.Gordon EdwardsĪt the World Uranium Hearings Salzburg, Austria Uranium: Known Facts and Hidden Dangers URANIUM: Known Facts and Hidden Dangers invited address by Dr.
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