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."
Resources exist to be exploited, albeit not indiscriminately. Zero tolerance ban is just as bad as gung-ho mining, they're both extremes of what otherwise should be "sensible mining".
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Will NEVER be 'happy'. So you can pretty much ignore them.
... 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
A country repealing environmental regulation made for a mythical world and replacing it for real world environmental concerns. The current process of mining rare earths in China is horrendously bad for the environment, however because of Greenpeace inspired laws almost no else would do it. Rare earths aren't rare, but environmental laws that actually have anything to do with the environment are.
It's time to put the rest of the Greenpeace inspired FUD laws about radiation and all other things nuclear out to the FUD farm where they belong. The laws were written for one purpose only, and that was to prevent anything relating to nuclear from ever being viable. It's idiots like these why an MRI doesn't use nuclear in the name even though that is what the technology is based on.
It's like the opposition to any form of Nuclear power or gas power plant, the net real world result was that for decades we built coal power plants instead. It's time to replace fear mongering with science and start to look out for the environment instead. Nuclear energy is the greenest form of energy we have, and it will remain so until Fusion is up and running.
The same reason why Slashdot hides all the other breaking news: The Jewish Conspiracy.
uranium mining makes low-level waste, not that big a deal
Could all have been a loooong hazaa! As to this decision, Greenland was relatively unspoiled and few things spoil a country quicker than strip mining.
We're locusts. We exhaust the available resources until they are no more.
well they can just move to other side of the island.
and clean up how? by dumping it into a volcano spewing the stuff out anyways?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Coal has killed far more people than all nuclear events - accidental and intentional - combined. By a factor of 1.000.000.
Idiot.
"Do you want me to send you back to where you WERE? UNEMPLOOOOOYED IN GREEEEENLAND???!!!"
Yesterday's parliamentary vote passed the decision by a staggeringly close 15-14 votes.
For hire.
The current process of mining rare earths in China is horrendously bad for the environment, however because of Greenpeace inspired laws almost no else would do it. Rare earths aren't rare, but environmental laws that actually have anything to do with the environment are.
Why didn't Greenland just amend the legislation to remove rare earths from the ban? Or put in place a gradual effort to also mine uranium?
My guess: Rare Earths are a red herring. The real issue is uranium mining, which would have never passed, but because of "rare earths" and "scary China" and "jobs!!!" the extraction industry got exactly what they wanted - sensible sounding repeal, hiding their intentions to pull up lucrative but environmentally damaging uranium mining.
Look for massive contributions to reelection funds (aka bribes) for the legislative members who happened to support the full repeal. In fact, bribery could be as subtle as market timing information letting those individuals (or their family members) profit massively from external markets.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
...and open up thorium mining in the western part of the state, ideally while pushing hard for LFTR or other thorium based meltdown proof non-pressurized-vessel nuclear. NC alone could supply the entire energy needs of the US for the next 17,000 years, according to one assessment I've read, while yes, producing lots of rare-earth metals. Currently they don't mine the rare earths because the admixed Thorium is viewed as toxic waste!
Yeah, the most valuable toxic waste in the world.
rgb
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
I thought NMR was the technology included MRI, but didn't necessarily involve imaging. (For instance finding rates of metabolism.) MRI uses NMR to produce images.
ON RARE EARTH ELEMENTS
A Rare Earth Element revival in the United States could help to bring industry and real manufacturing back to our shores. It goes right along with the promise of Thorium to satisfy all grid and process heat requirements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG1YjDdI_c8
Here Stephen Boyd tells us what "rare earth elements" are, and why they are vital to modern technology: He is incredibly hyper and excited about them, as you should be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16IpITWBQ8
While everyone is talking about China 'Western industry through its aggressive focus on manufacturing and 'low wages'... there is ANOTHER way China has become almost a 'sole source' of modern technology: it has negotiated exclusive manufacturing contracts based on its willingness to mine rare earths, yet not export them without a penalty ... this has caused production of electronics and magnet-oriented devices (think batteries, wind turbines) to be relocated to China. Meanwhile the United States, once the world's largest producer of these has mostly ceased -- in part because a slightly radioactive by-product, Thorium, presently has no market and is (unfairly IMO) lumped in with hazardous. More background and some ideas for using the Thorium here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MauEg9vqh9k
ON URANIUM
Love it or hate it, if you're in North America ~30% of your electricity comes from it. The worst uranium mining nightmares arose from a Cold War appetite for nuclear weapons and a government that abused its authority and brand of secrecy to sideline health and environmental consequences... not the smaller level of mining necessary to keep nuclear power reactors going.
Clearly some thinking needs to be changed.
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Environmental groups, as you might expect, are not happy."
Probably posting about it on the lithium battery powered laptops or phones.
If you think the rare earth mines in China are environmentally bad, just imagine how bad that operation would be run in North Carolina.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
The aliens are just here to protect us from the terrible secrets of space.
Syllable : It's an Operating System
Hi.
Anyone who has ever looked at a Mercator projection map knows that Greenland is about the same size as the entire continent of Africa, so it's about time they contributed proportionately to the global economy. ;-)
Nature has deposited all of these radioactive toxic chemicals all over the place. Mining is just cleaning up this mess by taking the material out of the ground to purify the ground.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
Oddly enough, uranium mining produces noticeably radioactive waste. The ores are radioactive mostly because of decay products from the uranium built up over hundreds of millions of years. After the ore is processed and the long half-life uranium is extracted those decay products are more concentrated in the spoil. It's not much of an increase but it is noticeable. There's also a noticeable release of radon gas into the atmosphere during the mining process.
The good news is that there isn't a lot of waste since a uranium mine only processes a comparatively small amount of ore. The proposed mine in Greenland would produce about 220,000 tonnes of uranium; at about 2-3% metal in the ore (at a guess) that means roughly 6 million tonnes of ore would be dug up during its lifetime. The world digs up about 7 billion tonnes of coal each year, most of which is burned to produce electricity. In comparison about 70,000 tonnes of uranium metal is used to provide power annually around the world, the result of mining about 20 million tonnes of ore. With more recycling and reuse of spent fuel that figure would be much less.
I'm more surprised there's people living in Greenland!
the waste is easily dealt with, it is not a problem for a country with people who have more than two neurons in their head to rub together. they can just avoid doing things the US way.
[nuclear] if you're in North America ~30% of your electricity comes from it.
I meant to type ~20%. The actual figure is 19.7% in 2011, it has been as high as 20.6% in 2001.
Source: EIA Annual Energy Review 2012
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Spelling nazi aside, where is it that you're from where you use don't use 1 as the statistical unit of measurement for counting votes? I guess you could have 73-72, and divide by 5, but that's still a 1 unit deviation. 1/29 does carry more weight than 1/145, but either way, both are quite close. Although I'm not sure what statistical unit you were using in "14.6-14.4," but compared with "15-14," one vote is the most minimal statistical unit that can be used to express the data. The usage of staggeringly seems appropriate.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.