Why is everyone panicking over this Uranium thing?
Firstly if it is true, there is
nothing a little petition will do to stop it. The laws in New Brunswick say you don’t own the land
your home is on! You barely own the top soil. If mineral exploration reveals a
mine deposit you’re gone. You will have a chance to deal with the mining
company, if this fails a moderator will decide how much money you get for the
land you thought was yours. Mining in New
Brunswick means big money, jobs, and taxes for the
government. They won’t give this up. And why would we want to give this up? The
potential for Jobs and maybe lower taxes (if we play our cards right), this
will hell us reach self-sufficiency. I have a prospector license, although I do
not use it very often, it gives me the right to access any land and not be
accessible by the Trespass Act of New Brunswick, in order to prospect for
minerals. You should just let the prospector do his job, that’s how he makes
his living. If he does do damage to your land you will be paid for it. Threatening
or giving these guys a hard time will not get you anywhere, if anything you are
probably committing an offence by doing so.
Secondly, no one will be mining
the Atlantic Provinces
for Uranium for awhile still. The deposits in northern Canada and the northern prairies are
far more important, plentiful, and easy of access. The rush right now consists
of claim staking. Prospectors are going crazy over the newest Uranium prices.
They are staking claims on anything that they think might yield some deposits
of this radioactive metal. Then try to quickly pedal the claims to mining companies.
This sometimes works and sometimes it doesn’t. If it does work it means quick
cash for the prospector and the company will then dig a few holes to check for
the validity of the claim. If they find nothing of value the claim will expire
and they will not renew. If the prospector can not pedal the claim he will most
likely let it go after a few years because in order to keep the claims up he
must work on them and keep paying fees. This is what will probably happen. This
is just excitement over prices.
Third Misconceptions, yes mining
is dangerous and people die. But this is not only true for Uranium mining. It’s
also accurate for any kind of mining, and miners are not only subjected to
radiation in uranium mines, they are in any mine. It’s a price to pay, in today’s
world; minors know the risk and can decide for themselves if the pay is worth
it. Research seems to say cell phones cause cancer…but I don’t see many
petitions too ban those permanently. There are also small thing that can happen
to contaminate local wells. Drilling any kind of well can also cut trough hazardous
minerals, these things happen.
This is basically a situation
where people are scared of something they don’t know. Uranium is only known by
most people for its radiation properties. No one seems to see, Uranium is not
only linked to bombs, cancers and accidents. Everyone says Chernobyl this and Three Mile Island that,
both accidents where determined to be from flawed design matched with pour craftsmanship.
There are more than 430 reactors in 30 countries around the world as I type
this, these produce over 16% of the worlds energy. All of these are operating
without major incident, this including Canada’s own CANDU reactors
Not only do they produce great
power, but they do it without greenhouse gasses. Nuclear energy is our right
now and future answer to global warming. The only by-product that we don’t like
is the spent Uranium. It will need to be stored underground in old mining
shaft, far away from where it can harm us. Why would this be a problem? Beats
me!
Next we have radioactive
isotopes. Radioisotopes play an important part in the technologies that provide
us with food, water and good health. In medicine, radioisotopes are widely used
for diagnosis and research. In the preservation of food, radioisotopes are used
to inhibit the sprouting of root crops after harvesting, to kill parasites and
pests, and to control the ripening of stored fruit and vegetables.
Environmentally, radioisotopes are used to trace and analyse pollutants, to
study the movement of surface water, and to measure water runoffs from rain and
snow, as well as the flow rates of streams and rivers. Most household smoke
detectors use a radioisotope (Americium-241) derived from the plutonium formed
in nuclear reactors. These alarms save many lives. Why would we not want to be
part of the answer? The benefits of Uranium by far outweigh its downfalls. We
just need to stop listening to what everyone (Most don’t even know the rumours
they are spreading) says and do a bit of research for ourselves.
We will need Uranium for the
future, whether we like it or not. Or we can keep being scared of it and not develop
it to the potential it deservers. We can wait until oil prices reach even
higher prices. Or we can use our old (super pollutant) coal power plants to
keep up with our need, because renewable energy will not be able to keep up,
with all our luxuries, heaters in winter, A/C in summer.
We need to research this for of
energy, and expand it to our advantage. Spread the word on this, the faster we
turn ourselves around and drop our old Coal and Oil plants for nuclear plants
the sooner we can fight global warming. Before spreading fears of Mining
Uranium and using Uranium…look to studies, information, anything. Just make
sure those fears are founded.
I’d also like to say please do
not hesitate to contact your MLA, but don’t bother him with this stuff, because
it most likely will not go any further than prospecting and light exploration.
Talk to your MLA about the roads, this is a pressing issue. We pay our taxes
and most importantly our vehicle registrations to take care of this! We should
not be held responsible for past mistakes of taking out toll highways (Thanks
Lord!).
I’m very sorry if I drifted of
topic, but I think the fear of Uranium and Uranium reactors is what prompted
the letters in the first place. Because the items stated in the letter make no sense
when you research the matter and put things into perspective. The facts within
the letter have been, made up, taken out of context or manipulated. And I don’t
like to see these things happen.
I will en my post with a tip for
people out there, who are very worried about loosing there land or uranium and
radon contamination. Go get yourself a prospecting license (cost almost
nothing). And Stake your own land (this will cost a bit more in time and money).
This will insure no one does anything to your land except for yourself.
Denis