Slashdot Mirror
Greenland Repeals Radioactive Mining Ban
An anonymous reader writes
"According to the International Resource Journal, 'Greenland has voted to axe a long-enduring ban on mining for radioactive materials, reopening the market to uranium and rare earths mining. Yesterday's parliamentary vote passed the decision by a staggeringly close 15-14 votes. ... The ban has previously prevented the extraction of some major rare earth deposits, because they are connected to radioactive materials.' 95% of the world's rare-earth demand is currently supplied by China, but estimates indicate Greenland could produce enough to supply 25% of the demand. Greenland's Prime Minister said the decision was made because of financial reasons: 'We cannot live with unemployment and cost of living increases while our economy is at a standstill. It is therefore necessary that we eliminate zero tolerance towards uranium now.' Environmental groups, as you might expect, are not happy."
... could arrange a couple billion dollars donation every year to the Greenland government to bring the bans back.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Yeah, it is imperative we act immediately, we only have . . . .*counts on fingers* . . . a couple billion years left before radioactive materials decay beyond economic feasibility! :P
Though on a serious note, kilowatt-hour for kilowatt-hour, isn't it more environmentally friendly to mine uranium than coal? Even factoring all the energy spent in refining and all that, fissile fuel has energy densities many orders of magnitude greater than any fossil fuel.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie