The Nuclearisation Process

The Nuclearisation Process

Nuclearisation is a long and complex process covering a number of stages. It begins at mining uranium and ends in exploding a bomb. The process once again poses a strong challenge to all life on our planet as a result of the revival of the nuclear energy.

During the process the ratio of uranium to the ore is only .02%. Ore undergoes various stages of purification to merely produce a tiny amount of uranium. The purified uranium concentrate at its primary stage is known as yellow cake. This is again purified in the nuclear plants to make it suitable for the use in nuclear weapons. After uranium is extracted the left-over ore, called uranium tailings, is mixed with water and flushed into the tailing dams. The ore from which uranium is taken out has a number of radioactive minerals and 85% of those elements continue to exist in the ore which are drained out in the water bodies. A few of them are thorium-230, radium-226, radon-222 the radon progeny including 210, etc. Tailings also have concentration of lead, zinc, manganese, cadmium and arsenic. Since there is no decay process the radiation effect of these elements remains active thousands of years. These radioactive minerals along with the ore/uranium tailings keep contaminating the natural water bodies over a very large area. Eventually, these radioactive minerals enter into the food chain through polluted water used in agriculture, aquaculture and domestic purposes. The solid radioactive materials in the ore attach themselves to tiny duty particles and droplets of water vapour floating in the air. The nuclearisation as a process thus contaminates groundwater, surface water, seas, oceans and air.

The second stage is transportation of purified uranium or yellow cake to the processing industries. Uranium in the stage of yellow cake' is generally dealt with less care and by unskilled or semi-skilled workers. Due to rigid fail-safe measures the containers conveying uranium sometimes burst or leak and thus remain to vulnerable to accidental risks.

During the processing of uranium, radioactive iodine is routinely released in small amounts by nuclear power plants and in huge amounts by nuclear reprocessing plants. Decommissioning and cleaning up of nuclear weapons plants also produce extra large amounts of radioactive waste. It is estimated that a disproportionate share of this burden falls on indigenous and rural people who live in the areas of processing and who are employed in nuclear industries as workers.