Uranium Mining Waste, and a Gentle Introduction to Radioactivity

Before we look at the “back end” of the Nuclear Cycle, it would not be right to ignore the
environmental costs of the “front end”, aside from the greenhouse carbon it makes. Huge amounts of mining
waste accumulate in piles like these rock “pyramids” left behind when the uranium mine in Ronnenburg,
Germany closed.

Elsewhere, milling sludge is stored in ponds, kept wet to avoid radioactive dust from being blown
around by wind. These pictured here are at the Olympic Dam mine in Australia.  

Having been crushed and milled, this waste is easily weathered, leached by the elements, and dispersed
into and through the soils and waters. Like the mining for other, non-radioactive metals, the waste from
uranium mining also releases heavy metals such as arsenic, and mill chemicals into the environment.

But the waste from uranium mining poses an additional, even more pressing concern: its radioactivity,
such as from radon gas. Only tiny amounts of uranium in the rock are removed by mining and milling, leaving
behind just about as much rock waste as was mined. And Thorium 230 is not removed; typically 16 grams
remain in every tonne of sludge.

To better understand the environmental pollution and health risks around uranium- mining waste
requires a basic grasp of atoms and radioactivity. The topic will come up again in a big way as we look at how
NPPs work, and how their waste is handled which is not very well. Earlier, we referred to Uranium 235 and
Uranium 238 isotopes; now we will see what the term means.

This is written for the reader who knows little about atoms, chemistry and radiation and needs a little
more, enough to get a better sense of what the BNPP is all about. If you know more chemistry and physics,
you may wish to skip it.

The Atom

The familiar atomic logos all show a few outside electrons looping around a tiny nucleus. This one
is a personal favorite because its electrons make the atom seem so exuberantly alive:

Yesss!!!
Such logos are much too primitive to show that the nucleus is actually made of two kinds of smaller
particles, the proton and the neutron. We will define them after discussing electrons. Those three sub-atomic
particles are all we need for our purposes, even though physicists have dissected the atom far beyond that.

Electrons
 "Electricity" and “electron” come to us from elektron, meaning "amber" to the ancient Greeks. They
knew that rubbing a piece of amber with wool makes it strangely attractive to things like hair and bits of paper.

Early in the 18th Century scientists discovered that there are two, and only two kinds of electrical
charge. Objects charged the same way repel each other; those with opposite charge are attracted to each other.
Two amber rods rubbed with wool repel each other because they both have what was arbitrarily called negative
charge. But one of these rods will attract a glass rod that has become positively charged by being rubbed with
silk.

Pieces of amber and wool don’t lose weight after being rubbed together and gaining charge from each
other, and so the charged bits that they exchange must be weightless. That’s not strictly true, but for all practical
purposes it is, as we will see.

So just think of the electron as the smallest possible bit of electric energy, with a negative value of
“one”. The electrons of an atom are no different than those that stream out of wall outlets as electricity; it’s just
that they are attracted and held to the atom by positive charges in the nucleus.

Every atomic nucleus is surrounded by one or more “shells” of electrons. How many electrons there
are in the outermost shells of the different elements governs how they join each other to make different stuffs:
how two hydrogens make a threesome with an oxygen to become an H 2O water molecule; how two oxygens
wed a carbon to make one of CO2:

Every material thing, except for the inert gases like helium and neon, are all atoms of different
elements bonded to each other by their outer electron shells: most atmospheric gases; rocks; metals; soil; living
tissue. Those bonds are broken and others made to form new stuffs, as when wood burns with oxygen into ash
and smoke. Our very existence is all outer-shell chemistry: how plants photo-synthesize our food with sunlight,
how we release and use that stored energy by digesting it, how your blood uses iron to capture oxygen and bring
it to wherever your body needs it.

But that familiar sort of chemistry is not what we are centered on here. We are studying nuclear
chemistry. Welcome to the strange world of the inner atom. Let’s start by drawing how tiny a nucleus is
compared to the whole atom.

The Nucleus

Truth is, there is no way we can make a faithful picture of an atom, and the one below is no exception.
By itself, an atom has no color; it’s too small, relative to the lengths of light waves. Its outside is not solid; it is
defined by dynamic electrons, each with next to no mass. To explain the fine details of chemical activity,
modern atomic physics has developed a bewildering array of differently shaped electron clouds or "orbitals",
symmetrically arranged around the nucleus.

Then there’s the problem of the relative sizes of the atom’s surface and its nucleus. In atomic logos,
both electrons and nuclei are grossly exaggerated. A large true-scale model of an atom and its nucleus in real
terms might help to illustrate the huge difference in their sizes. For its outer surface, let’s use the dome roof of
the Iglesia Ni Cristo’s Philippine Arena in Bulacan that seats 55,000, carefully copied from Google Earth.
 The dome is 170 meters long. At this scale, the nucleus is far too small to draw to scale. But, with
your mind’s eye, look down: through the center of the dome, and down to the center of the arena floor. There:
See? Our model nucleus, as big as a ping-pong ball.

Just in passing: Isn’t it strange that the atoms that make up everything -- air, water, metals, rocks and
your own body – consist mostly of empty space between atomic innermost electron shells and nuclei?

Before we leave electron-shell chemistry: The number of electrons that each elemental atom holds is
not accidental. It matches the number of equal but positive charges in its nucleus. Each positive charge is
contributed by a proton in the nucleus, and every element is known by its atomic number, which is how many
protons its nucleus holds. Examples: Carbon 6, Oxygen 8 Uranium 92.

So what exactly is a proton?

The Proton and Hydrogen

Let’s pay respect to the mighty proton, so important in so many ways. Its name comes from the Greek
proto, meaning “first” because it makes up everything. There can be no smaller piece of material. “Pro-“ also
helps us remember that it carries the smallest bit of positive electric charge, equal to but opposite to that of the
electron.

Hydrogen is our very simplest elemental atom. Its nucleus is only a single proton, and so it has only
one lone electron in orbit around it. Protons and hydrogen were truly “first” when the Universe came into
being, the only matter that existed. All the other elements began to form only when stars began to power
themselves by fusing sets of four protons into helium nuclei in their hearts of enormous heat and pressure.

Just for the record, a proton weighs 1.627 octillionth of a kilogram. Forget that, and just call it an
atomic mass unit (amu). Remember U235 and U238? Each of their atoms respectively weigh 235 and 238
amu, the weights of 235 and 238 hydrogen atoms or protons.

(If you think that an amu is a small number, the mass of an electron is 1/1836 or 0.00055 amu, which is
why we can ignore it.)
 We know the weight of a proton, but how big is it? It is so small that the idea of “size” is almost
meaningless. Being so tiny, the methods to measure it are very difficult and give different results. In 2019 its
diameter was measured as one quadrillionth of a meter. That would work out to about 1/100,000 the size of a
whole atom.

Protons, far out of proportion to their vanishingly small size, have gigantic chemical roles. Hydrogen
atoms can lose their lone electrons and become free protons with positive charge that chemists call hydrogen
ions, H+.

Ions are simply any independent atoms or molecules that have electric charge because they hold too
many or too few electrons to balance the positive charges in their nuclei. That makes them chemically active,
aggressively seeking ways to lose or gain electrons by combining with other substances.

As hydrogen ions, protons are the active ingredients in acids. But hydrogen ions and protons are
essentially the same things.

Neutrons

Now pay respect to the mighty neutron, the subatomic particles that make both nuclear weapons and
nuclear power possible, the atom splitter in both bombs and NPPs. We will look at it in that crucial role later.

But first: As the nucleus in our drawing shows, the only electric charge it has is provided by its
protons. But what keeps the nucleus from flying apart? Aren’t like charges supposed to repel each other?
That’s where neutrons come in.

A neutron weighs the same as a proton but has no electric charge, hence its name, from “neutral”. A
“strong nuclear force”, 137 times stronger than electromagnetism, operates at very close range within the nucleus
to bond the protons and neutrons together.

In the nuclei of the lightest twenty elements, the numbers of protons and neutrons tend to be equal. For
example, the nucleus of the most common form of oxygen has eight protons matched by eight neutrons, for an
atomic weight of 16. Common carbon atoms have six protons and six neutrons and weigh 12 amu.

But in the sequence of increasingly heavier atoms, the growing numbers of protons seem to require
more and more neutrons to hold nuclei together. Thus, the nucleus of a Uranium 235 atom has about three
neutrons for every two protons.

Simple arithmetic says that a neutron plus an electron equals a proton. But don’t think simply of a
neutron as a proton that happens to be pregnant with an electron. Neutrons have as much fundamental identity
as protons do. But neutrons have the weird property of not being able to exist independently for very long. In
an unstable atom, if a neutron strays away from the rest of the nucleus even a little, the strong nuclear force no
longer operates, and the neutron decays. That is radioactivity, a nuclear event.

Atomic nuclei with either too few or too many neutrons are unstable and decay radioactively. That
includes both uranium isotopes U235 and U238.

… Isotopes? We’ve come across the term in passing before.

Isotopes

All atomic nuclei that have numbers of protons that are matched by equal numbers of shell electrons
behave chemically the same way, and thus belong to the same element. But some elements have varieties with
different numbers of neutrons. Their atomic numbers and chemical behaviors are identical, even though their
atomic weights are different.
 “Isotope” is Greek for “same place”, referring to the same place in the periodic table of elements that
all the isotopes of a single element share. Oxygen, for example, has three natural isotopes: O16, O17, and O18.
One isotope usually is much more abundant than the others; thus, O16 makes up 99.76% of all oxygen.

Uranium 235 and Uranium 238 are radioactive isotopes are at the core of this book. Another pair of
radioactive isotopes that will concern us greatly are Plutonium 239 and Plutonium 240, toxic waste products of
nuclear power plants.

Radioactivity

Thankfully, in his book we will have to deal with only three forms of radiation: alpha, beta and gamma.
The arithmetic of decay is nicely simplified because it involves only alpha and beta radiation.

Alpha radiation

Some unstable atoms with big nuclei like Uranium 238 decay by emitting things that were named
alpha particles when newly discovered but not yet understood. They turned out to be whole chunks thrown off
the nucleus, composed of two protons and two neutrons.

An alpha particle is identical to the nucleus of Element #2, Helium. Shortly after emerging from a
decaying atom an alpha particle picks up two electrons from its surroundings and becomes an ordinary atom of
helium, an inert and harmless gas.

Alpha particles are harmless, easily stopped by paper or the outer layers of your skin. However,
breathing or swallowing a radioactive substance that emits alphas can be dangerous, especially if the material
left is still radioactive.

After emitting an alpha particle, the “daughter” left by the decayed “parent” nucleus has two fewer
protons, so its atomic number drops by two and it has become a different element. Thus, a U238 atom (Element
92) has become an atom of Thorium (Element 90). Having also lost two neutrons, its weight was reduced by
four, and the daughter is the isotope Th234. It is also radioactive; just because a nucleus decays doesn’t mean
that the changed nucleus won’t decay as well.

Beta radiation
 Recall that a neutron cannot remain independent very long. The strong nuclear force is very strong,
but operates only at very short range. If a neutron strays away even a little from the rest of the nucleus, it
escapes the strong nuclear force and decays by shooting out a high-speed electron called a beta particle. That is
how our new Th234 decays: One of its neutrons emits a beta and becomes a proton, as shown in the picture. The
nucleus, now having one more proton, rises in atomic number to 91, Element Protactinium. The lost beta particle
didn’t weigh anything, and so the atomic weight remains 234.

(If you are confused because something gains something by decaying and losing something, that
happens in life sometimes. But the arithmetic works)

One of the most important examples of beta decay is that of Carbon 14, so useful for dating rocks and
archeologic relics. Carbon 12, the overwhelmingly most abundant isotope of carbon, is very stable and never
decays because its six protons are matched by six neutrons. Carbon 14 atoms, much rarer, have two
more neutrons and decay by beta emission, becoming atoms of nitrogen, Element 7. The older a wooden
artifact is, the less remaining C14 it has, and so the ratio of C14 to C12 in it is a measure of its age.

Gamma radiation

After a decay, the “daughter” nucleus can be left excited with some energy that it has to relieve by
emitting a gamma ray, a high-energy light particle with neither mass nor electric charge, so neither its atomic
number or atomic weight change.

Gamma and X-rays, essentially identical forms of high-frequency radiation, are very energetic and
dislodge electrons from atoms and molecules, ionizing them. Those ions are unstable and quickly undergo
chemical changes. In a fraction of a second, gamma radiation passing through a living body can change cell
DNA. Prolonged exposure to gamma radiation can lead to cancer.

Half -Life

Here, it is necessary to discuss “half-life”, a somewhat confusing idea that will be

important for us more than once. Any persons of influence involved in deciding whether or
not to activate the BNPP owe it to the taxpayers to be familiar with this concept; with luck,
some of them will read this and learn.

Every atom of a particular radioactive isotope has a “half-life”, a definite length of

time during which it has a fifty-fifty chance of either decaying or surviving. We will cut our
teeth on the idea by looking at radioactive Thorium 230, a major source of dangerous
radiation in piles and ponds of uranium mining waste.

Thorium 230 has a half-life of 75,400 years. Any Th 230 atom can decay at any time,
but if you start at with a large number of them, half of that number will have decayed after
75,400 years. So, if you isolate a kilo of Thorium 230, after 75,400 years a half kilo will
have decayed, and the other half will remain.

Half-life is a well-established property because atoms are not only extremely small,
they are virtually infinite in number, and thus lend themselves very well to statistical analysis
of their behavior.

Half-life is somewhat like human life expectancy, a statistic based on large numbers
of people. There are so many millions of Filipinos that the population data can be used to
estimate how long they live on average. For example, the National Statistics Office says that
Filipino boys who were born in 2018 can expect to live 66.2 years. This simply is an
estimate that in 2084 half of all Filipino males born in 2018 will have died and half will still
be alive. Let’s call that the “half-life” of Pinoys born in 2018.

Filipinas born in 2018 have life expectancy of 72.6 years; half will have survived by
2090, many of them widows. Perhaps Pinays owe their longer “half-life” in part to their
safer life styles, no testosterone poisoning, drinking much less San Miguel beer, fewer
drunken brawls, less reckless driving.

Life expectancy does not apply to individual girls or boys, only to entire groups.
Some have already died in infancy; others will live to ripe old ages.

But the similarity of human life expectancy and atomic half-life must end there!
Humans born in a certain year have only one “half-life”. Unlike us, atoms don’t become
frailer and closer to death over time. As long as any radioactive atom survives, it stays
exactly as fresh as when it came into being.

And so for however long any Th230 atom survives, it carries with it a fifty-fifty
chance of surviving another 75,400 years. All Th230 atoms that exist have survived many,
many half-lives and are billions of years old. Each atom forever has a fifty-fifty chance of
surviving another 75,400 years - until the instant it actually decays.

So. Earlier, we started out with a kilo of Th 230, and a half kilo remained after one
half-life of 75,400 years. After two half-lives or 150,800 years, ¼ kilo will remain; after
three, 226,200 years, 1/8 kilo. After four or 301,600 years, 1/16 kilo… and so on forever.
Back to radioactive mining waste
Mining and milling leave about 85% of the ore’s initial radioactivity, including 5 to 10% of the
uranium. They also do not remove the Thorium 230, which is especially abundant because its origin is U238,
overwhelmingly the most abundant uranium isotope.
 The decay of a Thorium 230 atom is only the first of nine steps, for each decay except for the last also
produces a radioactive daughter. As the picture shows, Th 90 decays in a series that emits six alpha particles,
four beta and three gamma rays before finally ending up with Lead 206, that metal’s stable and most abundant
isotope. Along the way, the decaying nucleus exists briefly as the three isotopes of Polonium, two of Bismuth
and two of Lead.

Most of us know about how Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898 and won the Nobel
prize, and how prolonged exposure to radiation - a term she coined -eventually destroyed her blood and killed
her. When Radium 226 decays it produces another toxic substance, the very radioactive gas Radon 222, which
then contaminates tailings piles and ponds, soils and the surrounding air.
 Radon gas is a major environmental and health concern. If you inhale radon that decays before you
exhale, its solid daughter Polonium 218 will remain lodged in your lungs. In rapid succession, Po218 will then
decay through a series of an alpha, two betas with gammas, and another alpha before slowing down. These
high-energy emissions damage cells and cause lung cancer. Radon can also come from radium entering the
body with food and drink.

In the continental United States, which is deeply underlain by very ancient rocks containing uranium,
radon leaking up into homes is a lung carcinogen, second only to cigarette smoking. Perhaps it is just as well
the Philippines are much younger islands without ancient, uranium-rich bedrock, huh?

If radon gas were the only toxic content of mining waste, it would quickly dissipate because it is so
very radioactive, its half-life less than four days. But trace it back up the decay chain: radon is continuously
replenished by Radium 226 in the mine waste, which decays with a half-life of 1,600 years. And we will never
run out of radium because there is all that Thorium 30 upstream, with a half- life of 75,400 years, decaying into
radium forever.

Aside from radioactivity, the waste also commonly includes pyrite, “fool’s gold”, an iron sulfate.
Bacteria that live on water and air passing through the waste continually make sulfuric acid out of the pyrite.
The acid leaches uranium, radium and other heavy metals that flow out of the waste into streams. It also
percolates into the ground, permanently contaminating aquifers that people rely on for their well water.

Activated, the BNPP fuel would every year add 100,000 tonnes to radioactive mine waste somewhere
else in the world. It’s a good thing that the Philippines has no mineable Uranium, yes?

References and Aids for Understanding

On radioactive waste:

United States Environmental Protection Agency, undated, Radioactive Waste From Uranium Mining and Milling.
epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-waste-uranium-mining-and-milling. Accessed 14 April 2020.

Diehl, Peter, 18 May 2011, Uranium Mining and Milling Wastes: Uranium Mining and Milling Wastes: An Introduction.
WISE (World Information Service on Energy) Uranium Project. wise-uranium.org/uwai. html#TAILCHAR . Accessed 20
March 2020.

Getting a sense of the relative sizes of atoms and their nuclei:

Charles and Ray Eames, 1977, Powers of Ten. youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 . Accessed 14 April 2020. This video
has been very useful in my classrooms since the 1970s. It starts out by expanding outward to the size of the universe, then
returns and explores down to the atomic nucleus.

Note about the amu:

For obscure reasons that need not concern us, the official definition is 1/12th the mass of a Carbon 12 atom. For our
purposes, equating it to a proton is precise enough and actually makes more sense.

Isotopes:

American Chemical Society, 2018, What are Isotopes? acs.org/content/acs/en/ pressroom/reactions /videos/2018/what-are-
isotopes-chemistry-basics.html. Accessed 14 April 2020.

Radioactive decay:

This video is somewhat “cutesy”, but explains it well. The nice things about videos is you can see them as many times as
needed. Steve Weatherall, 10 December 2012, Radioactivity: Expect the Unexpected. youtube.com/watch?
v=TJgc28csgV0. Accessed 15 April 2020.

Picture Credits
Waste rock “pyramids” of Ronneburg, Germany: Muhammad Said Al-Masri. https://www.wise-
uranium.org/img/pyr.jpg. Accessed 17 April 2020.
Olympic Dam tailings, Australia:  Strahlendes Klima, 2008. https://www.wise-uranium.org/img/ odtail1.jpg. Accessed 17
April 2020.

npg.org.uk/collections/search/
Marie and Pierre Curie: United Kingdom National Portrait Gallery
portrait/mw259700/Marie-Curie-Pierre-Curie-People-of-the-Day-No-1-Radium---Jehu-Junior;
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_et_Pierre_Curie.jpg. Both accessed 17 April 2020.