Atomic Show #339 – Greyson Buckingham, CEO Disa Technologies

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges and implications of abandoned uranium mine waste, particularly on Navajo lands.

Abandoned uranium mine waste has been a big deal for decades, but almost no one had an inkling about what we should do to solve the problem. The scale of the challenge is huge, with various estimates ranging between 1 and 8 billion tons of uranium mining waste rock spread over more than 10,000 sites, nearly all of which are in western states and Native American sovereign nations. The Navajo Nation is the jurisdiction with the biggest burden – a substantial portion of the waste is on Navajo lands and spread over 500 or more sites . Some have dismissed or minimized the problem by pointing to the relatively low material concentrations and the low radiation doses emitted. But low concentrations multiplied by tens of millions of tons and thousands of sites calculates to distressingly large numbers. It’s also important to remember that the contaminating minerals of concern are heavy metals that might be lightly radioactive, but they also have a level of chemical toxicity that also causes negative health impacts on humans and animals. Though billions of dollars have been allocated for cleaning up the waste piles, there hasn’t been much progress because the available solution…

People in this episode

Host: Rod Adams

Guest: Greyson Buckingham

Topics covered

• uranium mine waste
• environmental cleanup
• Navajo Nation
• heavy metals
• radiation
• toxic waste

Keywords

• uranium mining
• waste rock
• contaminating minerals
• groundwater threat
• chemical toxicity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Disa Technologies

Places: Navajo Nation, western states

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