Powersurge
11-13-2005, 12:28 PM
I was doing some "research" for a forth coming "Thunder" adventure and came across this place called Uranium City in northern Saskatchewan.
"With its deserted suburban neighbourhoods and abandoned mines, Uranium City has almost fallen off the map. As the epicentre of Canada’s biggest ever uranium boom, this northwest Saskatchewan town of 180 still hangs onto an elementary school, a regional hospital and a post office. Everything else, from the town’s recreation centre to the movie theatre is either closed or demolished. Houses, if they are still standing, now sell for about a dollar — the nice ones, fixed up and running, go for about $700.
The rugged landscape that surrounds Uranium City harbours an unintended legacy: a network of radioactive waste sites scattered across sub-arctic rock and forest, some 50-odd uranium mines and refineries within a 15-kilometre radius of the town. For almost 30 years, through the height of the Cold War, Uranium City shipped atomic fuel for bombs and nuclear reactors around the world — and piles of tailings and refinery waste piled up prior to the advent of protective legislation. Consequently, "the potential for harm from exposure to uranium released from uranium mines and mills is widespread," noted one Environment Canada report in 1999.
Across the nation there are still more than 200 million pounds of uranium tailings, one of the world’s largest inventories of low-level radioactive waste, scattered across sites from Uranium City and Great Bear Lake to more southerly communities like Elliot Lake, Port Hope and Deloro in Ontario. The truth is that governments have little to gain from an expensive environmental clean-up and the uranium business has fallen on uncertain times. Canada’s $550-million-a-year uranium industry — the world’s single largest exporter, based exclusively in Saskatchewan — is laying off employees and slowing mine operations, still hopeful that climate change and rising power demand will deliver a future for radioactive ore. "
Betcha nature would've taken care of communism alot faster than this mess! Then again, I betcha exhaust emissions cause more damage to the global environment then even a poopy mess like this, so ... lets keep ragging on cigarette smokers and companies!!! Evil second hand smoke.
"With its deserted suburban neighbourhoods and abandoned mines, Uranium City has almost fallen off the map. As the epicentre of Canada’s biggest ever uranium boom, this northwest Saskatchewan town of 180 still hangs onto an elementary school, a regional hospital and a post office. Everything else, from the town’s recreation centre to the movie theatre is either closed or demolished. Houses, if they are still standing, now sell for about a dollar — the nice ones, fixed up and running, go for about $700.
The rugged landscape that surrounds Uranium City harbours an unintended legacy: a network of radioactive waste sites scattered across sub-arctic rock and forest, some 50-odd uranium mines and refineries within a 15-kilometre radius of the town. For almost 30 years, through the height of the Cold War, Uranium City shipped atomic fuel for bombs and nuclear reactors around the world — and piles of tailings and refinery waste piled up prior to the advent of protective legislation. Consequently, "the potential for harm from exposure to uranium released from uranium mines and mills is widespread," noted one Environment Canada report in 1999.
Across the nation there are still more than 200 million pounds of uranium tailings, one of the world’s largest inventories of low-level radioactive waste, scattered across sites from Uranium City and Great Bear Lake to more southerly communities like Elliot Lake, Port Hope and Deloro in Ontario. The truth is that governments have little to gain from an expensive environmental clean-up and the uranium business has fallen on uncertain times. Canada’s $550-million-a-year uranium industry — the world’s single largest exporter, based exclusively in Saskatchewan — is laying off employees and slowing mine operations, still hopeful that climate change and rising power demand will deliver a future for radioactive ore. "
Betcha nature would've taken care of communism alot faster than this mess! Then again, I betcha exhaust emissions cause more damage to the global environment then even a poopy mess like this, so ... lets keep ragging on cigarette smokers and companies!!! Evil second hand smoke.