" THE PETRIFIED RIVER " 1957 URANIUM MINING IN THE WESTERN USA UNION CARBIDE FILM 75674

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This 1957 film "The Petrified River" describes the pursuit of uranium prospecting in the West. It details the process of mining in Colorado; beginning with prospectors in the air and following miners down. The film presents various uses of radioactive isotopes at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Uranium is commonly used to generate heat in nuclear power reactors and produce nuclear fissile material for nuclear weapons. The film details the complex process of irradiating food supplies. It is presented by the Union Carbide Corporation; a chemical company founded in 1917. Union Carbide is attributed with developing an economical way to make ethylene from natural gases and liquids leading to the birth of the modern petrochemical university. It opens on the seal of the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines (:08). A plane sweeps over rocky terrain of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico (:17). Ancient rivers cut under the mesa’s containing uranium (:30). This film is from the Library of the Bureau of Mines of the US Department of the Interior (:51) and is presented in cooperation with Union Carbide Corporation (1:04). A brief history of the environment here is featured (1:25). Salt flats (1:45) blanket the land. The highlands of Colorado and New Mexico lay under light cloud coverage (1:57). Cascading waters cart silt and gravel to the flats (2:16). Layers of red and grey rock run across the red mesa lands (4:10) two hundred million years old. The pilots search for petrified river beds bearing Uranium (4:23). Equipment such as the scintinallator (4:30) is used to search for radiation. The cruiser uses a technique known as rim flying (4:41) around the Colorado plateau. A prospector scales the rock face seeking yellow rock containing uranium (5:03). He uses a Geiger counter (5:27). Survey markings are etched onto stakes (6:12). The process of scribing a claim (6:14) and notice are detailed. Bulldozers moves up the mesa wall (6:39) shoving rock aside. The drill sinks deep to drag up ore deposits (7:04). Drillers remove cylinders of stone (7:26). A radiation counter examines drill cores (7:53). An animation details how the earth miners operate (8:33). The drillers (9:12) dig into the rock face. Muckers scoop blasted free ore (9:35) into cars for the mine. Miner and cart slip into a tunnel (9:52). A compressed air engine pushes the miner along (10:12). A great shot follows the miner and cart down a narrow stone cave way (10:26). The cart emerges and cuts over a bridge (10:55). Sediment is emptied into the back of a semi-truck (11:03). Trucks roll down mesa roads for buying stations (11:17). It arrives at Uravan (11:23), a plant operating from the 1940’s to the 1980’s. Ore is unloaded into receiving bins (11:40). Crushes pummel the rocks into a fine sediment (11:47). Rotating containers combine acid into the mix (12:14). The solution drips from the container (12:22). Liquids drip from sands in the rotating filters (12:45). Yellow cake remains (13:12). In the 1950’s the Atomic Energy Commission opened the plateau for drilling. A tank truck moves acid (15:18). An earth mover drags ore (15:22). The camera view pans around the mill (15:53). The hydrogen (16:22) and uranium atom are explored (16:59). Nuclear fission is explained using animation (17:33). Men load a reactor with slugs of uranium (19:05). A radiation counter checks the ramrod for radioactivity (19:19). Materials are inserted within the reactor (19:35) and later withdrawn (19:44). A pharmacy technician stores products behind a thick wall (20:16). Various uses for radiation are discussed (21:23). A radioisotope is readied for delivery (21:47). Radioactive iodine is looked to (21:57). A patient takes a drink of the iodide mixed with water (22:48). A radiation counter moves over the patient’s body (23:01) seeking a diseased thyroid (23:13). Cobalt 60 is used (23:23) to locate a tumor. Food items are preserved by radiation (23:52). Samples are pulled from meat in order to test the application of radiation to prevent spoilage of food (24:09). Burros are used (24:45) in an experiment. Isotopes are explored to understand how cells utilize energy from the sun (25:15). Radiation is used for breeding experiments (25:18). Chromosomes are looked at under the microscope (26:04).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...

[@Rusty1220]

These Periscope Films are true educational treasures.

[@JacquelineKeeler]

@zaphrodbblbrx How It's Made tv show?

[@draemalic]

They don't make educational films like they used to. This was amazing.

[@jeanmeslier9491]

I had an uncle who was an uranium prospector based in Grand Junction, Colorado during the 1950s. I know he died at a young age. My Dad spray painted leaded paint. When he wasn't working construction, he painted houses. He made his own paint. White lead and linseed oil. He died in 1959 at the age of 49 with lead poisoning. Construction companies provided no personal safety equipment.

[@cacatr4495]

If they made their own "paint," then wouldn't they be the responsible party for being exposed to it?

[@ciprianpopa1503]

I bet that they also smoked.

[@ctdieselnut]

Fascinating. I'm so thankful for this being available for free, the educational quality of these short movies is awesome. In under a half hr they managed a cursory look at prospecting, mining, refining, where it came from, how it was deposited, the gold rush aspect of towns surrounding mines, supporting industry, and a ton of uses for uranium. Cool stuff.

[@AllisonAndrew98]

It's not late to say thank you for this informative video!

[@PeriscopeFilm]

So nice of you

[@kentcourtney5535]

The underground railroad operation using a compressed air locomotive is particularly fascinating.

[@drtidrow]

Faster to recharge than batteries, too. Another option was fireless steam locomotives, where a mixture of very hot water and steam at high pressure was stored in a large insulated tank, similar to the air tank seen in the video. As steam was drawn off to run the locomotive, the pressure dropped, allowing more water to boil and become usable steam. Eventually this had to be recharged from an external boiler, but in areas where a fire was dangerous this was a viable alternative to regular steam engines.

[@atufankar]

i love seeing these things on youtube.

[@JC-oq5ex]

It's so wild to think that all this effort went into the final result being a steam powered system.

[@rtqii]

Not one miner or mill worker was wearing a mask or respiratory filter. The drilling slurry from uranium mines is highly radioactive, they only drill where they know there is production grade ore present, or close by... At the very least you should be wearing gloves when handing things like core samples... But touching fresh core samples that are still wet with drilling slurry is going to take a good scrubbing with a brush to decontaminate your fingers. Union Carbide never gave a damned about employees.

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

Yeah, no argument. Bhopal showed what UC can do when it's not forced to even pretend to give a damn.

[@bigbuilder10]

From a radioactivity standpoint, the gloves are useless. A face mask is a must when working with uranium! Very little risk from uranium when holding it with your bare hands, but if you ingest or inhale some, bad times ahead.

[@FKTHESYSTEM063]

Know from experience?

[@bigbuilder10]

@@FKTHESYSTEM063 Uranium is an alpha emitter. Alpha particles can't penetrate the outer layer of dead skin. However, if ingested or inhaled, alpha particles ionize the sensitive lining of the lungs or GI tract, causing wet desquamation (very bad sun burn). Fluid loss leads to death. Fun fact, processed uranium ore is less radioactive due to the removal of daughter products. Allowing for the safe handling of enriched uranium fuel without the need for any protection or time restrictions, from a radioactivity stand point (the same goes for any alpha emitter). Although, they tend to be toxic so...

[@StevenGamesWHC]

Inhalation would be a problem for sure, handling not so much but gamma rays are present in mining areas due to the other isotopes of lead and bismuth and Radon is also a concern but again radiation wasn't well understood and safety less a concern back then.

[@grahamfisher5436]

19: 20 all the Gamma Ray's spots (bright white specs) showing on the film as they load the reactor 😱

[@alhrabe9558]

I grew up in uravan in the 60s. I still walk to school though the vapors from the mill cooling ponds in my dreams.

[@swingmanic]

Despite a long and well-developed understanding, based on the European experience earlier in the century, that uranium mining led to high rates of lung cancer, few protections were provided for US miners before 1962. Due to the resulting high rates of illness among miners it took until 1990 for the passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The lives of miners working in the mining of uranium were cheap. Doctors didn't need to give chest x-rays to know what they were diagnosing when these poor guys were brought into the hospital coughing up blood!

[@robertholub7844]

The key in lowering the lung cancer death rate of U-miners was when ventilation in U-mines was made mandatory. The reason it took so long (as late as the 60s) was because of bureaucratic bickering - which agency should be in charge of enforcement. We, as Bureau of Mines employees, worked on measurements and control of Rn in (not only) U-mines 1970-1996, together with DoE, until 1996 when our research was shut down. Again, a bureaucratic decision. The Compensation Act was often abused by lawyers who got compensation even for people who were exposed so little that the probability of contracting lung cancer was negligible. The really exposed miners were long dead by then. Needless to say, as with all cancers, the problem has not been solved.

[@robertholub7844]

@David Scott Kirby the most popular is Alphaguard radon monitor (easy to google it). It gives the most instantaneous response (like methane monitors). The reason radon monitors have a delayed response is the contamination of the detector by short-lived radon daughters. If you are interested I can explain it further.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

@@robertholub7844 Yes, please do explain. I am very interested in radiation monitoring equipment.

[@ericl452]

The fact that many of the miners also smoked didn't help. Smokers lungs are exposed to high radiation doses over time due to Polonium-210 in tobacco.

[@ctdieselnut]

@@ericl452 that's interesting, although I wouldn't call it a high dose. From reading various articles on Google, one said safe level is

[@ArmpitStudios]

The unmistakable Alexander Scourby doing the voiceover. Truly a golden throat.

[@thefinalkayakboss]

I could listen to this guy read a phonebook

[@thomastereszkiewicz2241]

there are very few voices that you can listen to for a long period of time without it being grating. I have cut short many a You Tube video because of this. This voice and David Attenbourough are a very few that are listenable for an extended period.

[@villedocvalle]

@@thomastereszkiewicz2241 the best.

[@kh-ro5su]

the fact they were studying the usefulness of irradiating our foods for longer shelf life is wild

[@Plumbump]

Ahh, good old union carbide. What is the current reincarnation of that corporation? p.s. its DOW/ Dupont.

[@perjonsson5517]

The" killing Company".In so many ways.

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

@@perjonsson5517 "Dow Chemical doesn't give a shit / Napalm sticks to kids."

[@TheHypnotstCollector]

opening shot is in Utah in "Canyonlands" near Green and Colorado River junction. The discovery of the Mi Vida mine contradicted all the rules of uranium discoveries. minute 9:00 when this film was made, 1957, mines had no venting. Radon gas killed all the miners. The dust killed everything that didn't die from the radon. on the processing side it wasn't much better.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Thanks for the comment but -- wow that is a terrible story.

[@garywemmer9342]

Then....why do people that visit "radon caves", flourish? There's something to be said about that!

[@TheHypnotstCollector]

@@garywemmer9342 I don't know why folks visit radon caves. I would be careful. Those miners in Utah really were the walking dead.

[@cpcattin]

When you think about it …….. it must have been difficult to assemble an entire orchestra in those uranium mines.

[@waynethomas3638]

maybe the god he mentioned helped!😂😇

[@Aranimda]

Stil better to play there than on the deck of the Titanic.

[@donnacsuti4980]

😆🤣lol

[@MrStaybrown]

I know a guy who worked at a ChurchRock NM Uranium mine, he believes what his superiors told him, which is its totally safe as long as you wear a badge that monitors exposure. The company used that information to legally protect themselves not the miners.

[@Sennmut]

70 years ago, how much less did we know about radioactivity?

[@richardmccann4815]

@@Sennmut way too much for the callous loss of life an pollution of vast areas which resulted from mining! Madame Curie was poisoned and died from radium, after doctors amputated her hands to try to save her life.

[@MrYAMAHA32177]

We have rural property in NM and over the years we thought we were the only humans out there. This last year we have been seeing more vehicles, heavy equipment and miners in the area. Rumor in town has it that they have finally found something because of the heavily armed employees guarding the site. I'm thinking Uranium or a similar valuable mineral.

[@Stevesbe]

@@Sennmut aliens

[@KB4QAA]

@@MrYAMAHA32177 Heavily armed? Submachine guns? Hand grenades? Mortars?

[@Iamthelolrus]

Wow safety standards were a little low in those days, almost surprised they didn't playfully start chucking yellow cake at the camera man...

[@1balky]

One great mistake in the film: fusion in stars forms elements up until iron. All heavier elements are not created through normal star fusion processes, but require energy from explosions, like supernovas.

[@ctdieselnut]

Interesting. I wonder if that was a discovery made after this film was produced.

[@ThunderboltWisdom]

@@ctdieselnut Probably.

[@EsotericGold_net]

They're actually finding that uranium is produced here on Earth in Clay beds which are highly monoatomic, soaking up more energy than normal matter transmutating elements up the chart

[@ThunderboltWisdom]

@@EsotericGold_net I suppose it makes sense in that those elements have all that energy and that is exactly what is needed to move them up one in the periodic table. Isn't that what happens when they enrich uranium and turn it into plutonium? They add an electron and a proton to transform it into the next element up.

[@robryan2939]

Once a star starts making iron the countdown to explosion has begun

[@duncandonitz4874]

I love the part when a technician uses robot arms and mirrors to squirt a small amount of orange goo into the bottom of a dixie cup, then hands it to a woman to drink. She's like "Thanks, that was refreshing!"

[@terry_willis]

Great video. Brought to you by Union Carbide. How many people has that company killed?

[@larpsim]

How many lives have been saved by their technology?

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

@@larpsim A question I'm sure that has eased the minds of the inhabitants of Bhopal for thirty-eight years.

[@BobRoss-xj8rm]

@@larpsim yeah agent orange made people a lot healthier you're right

[@larpsim]

Well, you win some and you lose a few here and there. You got to crack some beautiful eggs to make and omelette. You gotta crush some lemons to get lemonade 🍋

[@BobRoss-xj8rm]

@@larpsim lmao but who is dupont saving? I'd say napalm is one hell of an egg to crack over the Vietnamese people

[@jmp814]

Very interesting & clever yet definitely on it's way to the system of the beast.

[@ClearlyJoking]

6:25 that's why you find so many old cans!

[@mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm420]

The steam is fed through a turban. How versatile Indian headwear is.

[@davefellhoelter1343]

I own Millions of shares of beautiful Stocks in a BYRILIUM Mine long gone from Pops a WWII vet visionary

[@mwabbes]

Very interesting!

[@FT4Freedom]

The scientific community knew the effects of radiation at this time.

[@hiker64]

Film day in elementary and junior high school was a favorite day for me, all the films like this and nature films, and of course the scare films in high school about drugs and driver's ed from the Ohio Highway Patrol, remember those?

[@theturdcurd2382]

They never did explain why the river is so scared.

[@jeffreybobeck9809]

I think the old man at 24:47 was in more than one of the 1950s educational filmstrips.

[@DavidKutzler]

I remember watching this film around 1967 in my advanced science class in high school when we were studying nuclear energy.

[@rjl110919581]

thank you for the video

[@jerryw6699]

22:50, I'm not even gonna touch this paper cup of radioactive unspecified liquid, but you must drink it, or else!

[@tjhookaa]

Uranium fever has done and got me down Uranium fever is spreadin' all around With a geiger counter in my hand I'm a-goin' out to stake me some government land

[@hubbellrowe9012]

Is it just me in thinking that the use of radioactive iodine to test the activity of a thyroid was a bad idea? How do we know that this practice itself does not increase the risk of thyroid cancer?

[@heintmeyer2296]

Min the 50's, my mom used to stick their heads into the fluoroscope at the shoe store so her brother could look at her brain.

[@GrunOne]

It's kind of like an X-Ray machine. We weight the risks of its use against the more present and urgent disease it helps treat. It may have some part in future disease, but the risk is quite small compared to the outcome of the current problem. Kind of like weighing the risks of using electricity in our homes against the convenience.

[@LolXD2321]

I had a operation one time where I was injected with a nuclear material, to be honest my health has never been right ever since then.

[@Moosgoo]

@@LolXD2321 This might be the first stage of developing a super power...

[@curtwuollet2912]

It's easy to say "Well, they didn't know". But, we should be careful, because in the future, they will say the same thing. And we don't know it all.

[@bobbysenterprises3220]

I hope that counts per second reading in the plane was simulated. Although cps isn't a way to measure absorbed dose 200 cps is really high from the general use charts I found. And theirs goes to 500. I'll add that first prospected looks like he needed to seek shade several years ago and perhaps not drink so much uranium water.

[@LastAvailableAlias]

"First geologists go out to areas of great natural beauty and look for ways to destroy them..."

[@donnacsuti4980]

So true and so sad

[@jayoakes7874]

Honestly this is the main point of the film😥

[@malachiwhite356]

Would you prefer using wood, coal, wind turbines, solar arrays, dams, etc? Do these "destroy" natural areas? What a bizarre comment.

[@xtctrader1467]

That gadget you're holding contains material that was found by a geologist.

[@bigsparky8888]

AFTER THE FLOOD...WATER RECEDED AND LEFT SAND AND RESIDUE...EVOLUTION IS UNPROVED....

[@kh-ro5su]

lol

[@nickpn23]

Yellowcake and Marlboros.

[@carlinshowalter1806]

Way healthy!

[@dirkverhoest936]

this should really be shown to days people. !!!!

[@TheMonkeyNeuron]

13:03 Seems safe.

[@frosthoe]

Look close at the faces of those workers folks, so many died gasping for air from mesothelioma , black lung, or emphysema.

[@jesus.christis.lord.foreve899]

may they r.i.p. O LORD, Hear my prayer

[@filippaoronto3880]

Yes , even working so close to the ore is death . Oh Lord forgive!

[@RickyisHere]

These people handling uranium ore with 0 safety measures is wild

[@FayazAhmad-yl6spFZ]

Very interesting robot arm and their electric control panels and meters were analog bulky. By using simply technology they did great works.

[@Dinkledorpher]

And during the mining they got to breath the radon gas and release toxic waste into the environment.

[@MayankPrasad111]

So what?

[@mikeburch2998]

So uranium ore dust isn't hazardous? It seems like it would be.

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

It's _extremely_ hazardous. This is the 50s where OSHA doesn't exist and Union Carbide especially doesn't give a shit.

[@cipndale]

Uranium drives our planet. Literally. Mountains, continent drifting, nucleus spinning, and bulbs lightning.

[@JamLeGull]

Potwheelz gravity is the weakest of the fundamental forces, but it’s still pretty important in our lives.

[@robertholub7844]

Yes, and not using nuclear power as a base and necessary energy supply on sunless and windless days is irresponsible.

[@JamLeGull]

Robert Holub a sunless or windless day is something I’m not familiar with. Solar panels still work when it’s overcast too.

[@robertholub7844]

@@JamLeGull In winter around solstice in Europe it often happens that you keep the lights on the whole day. That's how dark it can get. Also, on temperature inversion days, there is no wind (terrible pollution though). Solar cells' efficiency decreases, eventually they will have to be dumped. Of course I'm not against solar cells, even wind mills (they kill the birds, bats, even insects you know), except, without nuclear base load power our civilization, based on electricity, cannot function. Or do you want to have coal burning power plants?

[@JamLeGull]

Robert Holub this wee fad we have of local power companies has to go away. When it’s daylight for almost all the 24 hour day half the year one can grab a lot of electricity from the sun. I’ve lived most of my life in New Zealand and Australia where the sun always shines so we could export every gram of uranium we have and not worry about it. Not super sure about the wind turbines thing, not because of what you said specifically but that I’ve heard a ton of concern trolling on the subject from conservatives who don’t care about any of that shit anyway. Plus Wellington, NZ has had wind turbines for decades and they’re the most greenie of all the greens.

[@TickTockTimeTraveler]

6:28 Hammering into that old growth pinyeon pine like it's a downtown telephone pole - the 1950s, everybody!!

[@TickTockTimeTraveler]

AND THEN WE BRING IN THE DOZERS lmfao

[@alexanderx33]

U want to enjoy every disparate pinyon pine scattered over hundreds of thousands of square miles? It's not a big deal. Now reducing the old growth redwoods to 5% of their former range, that's a real tragedy.

[@TickTockTimeTraveler]

@@alexanderx33 redwoods grow over a foot every year and are extremely antifungal, they're actually really, exceptionally easy to regrow lol

[@TickTockTimeTraveler]

@@alexanderx33 but yes!! I completely agree. more redwoods along the coastlines back where they used to be, please

[@CONCERTMANchicago]

6:21 posted on any convenient marker. Sure that 3,000-year-old Bristlecone Pine looks like a good spot. Then the real cost of mining begins to mount. That's mine, that's mine, and I'm going to claim that mine. Go away Indian that's mine too.

[@RedDawnJensen]

I think these things can still be 5K times normal level of .1 microsieverts, at ~500usv, so put a painters bonnet on your shoes or something if you scope mystery mines in the SW.

[@peterparker9286]

In the Beginning the Word. Gen I Sis

[@donnacsuti4980]

I recognize this video I originally saw in the early 1960s (60 yrs ago) when they didn't think much about environmental issues.

[@bouffant-girl]

It's very interesting how the narrator mentioned medical benefits of radioactive isotopes, but conveniently forgot to mention secondary cancers , which are inevitable after effects of radioactive and antineoplastic drugs.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Totally agree, although at the time -- there was a lot of confusion as to what the effects would be, due to lack of study and understanding. (I also don't think, at the time the film was made, that nuclear medicine had advanced very much.)

[@bridgetstoli2347]

Everybody will die of cancer if they live long enough. We add years to patient's lives.

[@KB4QAA]

RS: Secondary cancers are not 'inevitable". Fear mongering is not helpful.

[@EsotericGold_net]

Disease is the result of toxins and foreign material getting in the way of the body's voltage. The radiation is not the problem it is the foreign particles the body must break down with bacteria, bacteria can't break them down the body forms solvent, the flu. All Cancers and tumors including diseases are registered as low voltage. Uranium is made here on Earth also in monoatomic clay beds that soak up more energy than normal matter transmutating elements up the chart. 😜 Oh yeah all over Europe there are uranium mines that have been converted into radon therapy spas that are covered by insurance for its beneficial rejuvenation effects. Are we lied to on a massive level, absolutely. 🤗

[@donnacsuti4980]

This was made in the 1950s or early 60s many many years ago

[@nattiedraws]

ah yes, all these uses sure seem perfectly safe

[@420psilo]

How exactly does anyone find reason to 'thumbs down' these vids?

[@CerebralAilment]

Huge scam in the chat lol

[@21stcenturyjeronimo35]

It's not devils it's Human Nature. Might as well realize the devil in yourself when you get so angry your first an immediate answer is to have someone killed instead of attempting to further understand the situation. It's alarming how many people jump to wishing death to someone over the most minor things

[@Coinbro]

Wise words seldom understood

[@cpcattin]

200 million years. Unfathomable.

[@coloradostrong]

Yes, yes it is. Time is the _holy ghost_ to the humanists. Just add time.

[@soulbrothers7789]

Is Uranium radioactive when is mined or get radiation after ?!

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

It's radioactive when mined.

[@soulbrothers7789]

@@TimperialBroadcastingAgency So this guy's probably died from radiation sickness :(

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

@@soulbrothers7789 Most probably, yeah. :(

[@billsimpson604]

It is only slightly radioactive until it goes into a nuclear reactor. Then some of it splits into a list of other elements, some of which are highly radioactive. A bag of potassium nitrate fertilizer is slightly radioactive because it contains a radioactive isotope of potassium. Nearly all smoke detectors contain a tiny bit of a radioactive element. Glow in the dark clock hands were painted with one of the most radioactive elements there is - radium. But only a time bit was used. It will still set a Geiger counter buzzing like crazy. That is when you get an idea of how tiny an atom is, and how uranium can power an entire city, or blow one up.

[@DrKlausTrophobie]

@@soulbrothers7789 No. Radiation sickness is what we call acute symptoms of high doses of radiation. Starting with sunburn like skin irritation, up to serious burns, swelling, vomiting and failing organs (including the production of white blood cells). You only get this kind of dose from enriched substances. However, working in an environment with high base levels brings the risk of take up particles that will damage tissue from inside the body which isn't protected by skin (the outer layer of skin are already dead cells). The result are higher then average cases of cancers.

[@jojodancer5701]

The narrator sounds like the same guy who voiced HAL 900

[@jojodancer5701]

HAL 9000 that is

[@leemday5731]

I'm sorry Dave your going to die of cancer!

[@grahamfisher5436]

I'm sorry Jojo.... I don't know a HAL 900 so.. I'm afraid I can't open the hatch now ..

[@ThinkingBetter]

It's a bit sad to see how uranium mining was done long ago. Those workers scraping off the yellow cake like if it was innocent mud didn't live long.

[@jakebolocoye4866]

So, I figured out, why the ground wire is essential to the mining industry lightning-strike analytics are how the elite gain analytic information of where to mine. WoW ha, now every one knows. No longer you can absorb all industries.

[@ThinkingBetter]

@@jakebolocoye4866 Most definitely a lot of workers died years after being exposed to all the uranium dust. In the beginning it was often pure ignorance rather than intentional malpractice however. And yes, it's quite possible that people were kept intentional ignorant to avoid troubles. It's easy to run a mine with ignorant people than to create sophisticated ventilation for radon gas and avoid dust accumulating in the air etc. No gloves, no masks, no ventilation, no protection shoes, less showering, dry drilling, lunch breaks inside the mine etc. will save cost and people were dumb enough not to understand how uranium dust, e.g. on their fingers while eating lunch, was extremely dangerous.

[@indahooddererste]

@@ThinkingBetter they had to fight the soviets and everybody needs to do their part! /irony off

[@ThinkingBetter]

@@indahooddererste Unfortunately, now Putin has more firepower and can start WW3 without anyone stopping him through his own created command structure giving him access to the SATAN 2 ICBM that there is no way to stop when launched. I'm afraid we are more in danger today than during the Cold War.

[@richardmccann4815]

@@indahooddererste Yes, Hillary sold a full one quarter of our hard won yellow cake to Russia! How much did Bill Clinton's speaking engagements net? Nearly 100 million!

[@brycecurtis8483]

Man! Spooky stuff!

[@jesseharriott4253]

Yep radio active beef is what I wanna eat! Lol maybe not

[@kennethmilam2894]

When they went home did they glow in the dark?

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

I think this voice is the same they used to dub HAL 9000... "David... don't do it....please..."

[@villedocvalle]

Uh all those people must have developed issues being exposed to so much radiation

[@ManMountainMetals]

Avengers origin story. 😂

[@coldspring624]

Good thing those fly boys are wearing helmets

[@anncodec]

Guy used his bare hand to close a can containing a cobalt pellet,,is it me or is nobody wearing any type of masks?

[@iguanapete3809]

All personnel in this film died from cancer.

[@ladamyre1]

Many of those miners died from lung cancer because those mines would fill up with Radon 222, a radioactive daughter element in the decay chain of the Uranium 238 in those mines. Once locked in the rock, those mines would release the Radon gas into the mine. Because the half-life of the Radon 222 is so short, 8.3 days, it is hundreds of millions of times more dangerous than the Uranium, which is relatively safe. You measure the danger of a radioactive element by the type of radiation it emits and it's half-life. The longer the half-life the less dangerous it is. The half-life of Uranium 238 is 4.3 BILLION years. It is relatively harmless. Also called "Depleted Uranium", which only means it has had most of the Uranium 235 taken out to make bombs and fuel rods for reactors, which is only 0.7% of the natural ore, the nuclear power industry likes to "demonstrate how safe" Uranium is by getting a representative or salesman to swallow a "pill" made out of it. They also like to say Bananas have radioactive Potassium 40 in them, and that's why you shouldn't be scared of radiation, but the percentage of it is about 0.012% of all the Potassium in them and the half-life of Potassium 40 is 1.25 billion years, and to make that even more harmless, 89.28% of the type of radiation it emits is beta decay, an electron no more dangerous than 0.00000001% of that shock you got from the doorknob after rubbing your sock feet on the rug on dry days in the winter. They no longer mine Uranium the way this film is showing because they had to ventilate those mines because the Radon gas is so dangerous. Eventually they found they couldn't ventilate them fast enough, the miners were dropping like flies anyways. Mining companies just open pit mine nowadays. You may be thinking, "What about that Radon gas? Is that the same gas they used to warn us about building up in our homes?" Yes it is the same deadly Radon gas, but it doesn't stay Radon 222 for long as I noted. It all vents to the atmosphere no matter how it is mined, and half of it changes into Polonium 210 every 8.3 days. So Polonium 210 is raining down from the atmosphere on the planet, all day long, every day, for us all to breathe, to get on the plants we eat and most disturbing of all, on the tobacco that nobody washes. This is why all smokers have easily detectable levels of Polonium 210 in their lungs. It's not from the fertilizer or the insecticides. It's falling down out of the sky. Polonium 210 is what Russian spies used to assassinate Alexander Litvinenko back in 2006. If you eat as much as a grain of sand sized piece of Polonium 210 you WILL DIE because your body thinks it is Potassium and all of your cells will quickly absorb it. And we are all breathing it in every day, _because it's cheaper!_ To safely mine Uranium, mines like those shown in the film could be sealed shut with robots to mine the ore in an air controlled environment that would keep all the gasses inside to decay naturally. Actually the whole processing facility from ore to finished rods should be kept in a sealed environment to protect the public from Radon 222 and Polonium 210. But you'll never be able to prove your lung cancer came from Radon 222 or Polonium 210 in a court of law. Your case won't even get to trial. None of the tens of thousands who die every year from the radiation and radioactive elemental contamination resulting from the various operations of the nuclear power industry will ever have their day in court.

[@jackkatogh]

Noticed the fish tail pump.

[@jeffd4056]

What did you do for a living great grandfather Oh I scraped yellow cake uranium off the filter press for union carbide

[@DrKlausTrophobie]

...so my dad told me. Because Grandpa died before 50.

[@zerog2000]

Uranium, whose energy man has learned to liberate…

[@Simonjose7258]

To protect the public near uranium mines, vented radon gas must not exceed certain limits. Sometimes miners are required to wear respirators that protect their lungs from radon gas.

[@donnacsuti4980]

Notice the word sometimes

[@donnacsuti4980]

Masks and filtered respirators Were not in use or done till 1980s and now radiation used less often

[@sarahmorlang1728]

The problem with the Government going to the mines to check the uranium level of the miners, well they would inform the company when they were coming and so the shift bosses would pull certain guys topside until their meters would shoe low levels. These men were not required to wear respirators in the Uranium mines, it was optional and they were never told the dangers of not wearing one. My family including my Aunt who died young of cancer worked these mines, with the yellow cake, mining, transporting and core drilling, most have passed away from 1 or more lung diseases/cancer, the ones who worked post 1971 have the same health concerns or have already passed away, in their 50's and 60's or have health issues that prevent them from leading a healthy life. I've talked to many uranium miners and taken care of them, they tell their stories and not 1 of them have ever said the mining companies or government mentioned the danger the uranium dust could cause. I washed my husband's clothes, dirty lunch pail, etc. in the same washing aching I washed my children's, they would also grab his lunch pail to see if he had left any goodies. This story is sadly told over and over in "The Uranium Capital ", Grants NM.

[@darrolmcgraw7969]

the end was the best the handiwork of God!!

[@cpcattin]

Not far from the petrified river early cavemen made plans for the development of Las Vegas. Approximately 150 million years ago.

[@LILAZEPAM]

Scary violin sets in

[@chillydawgg4354]

Mining that shit can't be healthy for those workers

[@Sciolist]

Mining anything, even talcum is dangerous, risk is always there people accept them for great financial rewards.

[@wtxrailfan]

Boy Howdy! I wanna get me some of that thar 'ranium. Sounds like great stuff.

[@richardmccann4815]

Like death on a stick!

[@captaintoyota3171]

Look in 50s into 60s we knew very little about radiation. Or at least public some scientists knew, UC def should have known, that said that slurry and drilling u inhale uranium or get it in ur mouth you are doomed. Insane i wonder how many died young. Sad that good education is KEY to a society yet we seem to have forgotten that

[@sam-fc9ky]

unuion carbode- film ellen bockovitch

[@beausw]

Must have been made before they found the motherload in northern Saskatchewan.

[@donnacsuti4980]

The uranium in the grand canyon area was mined in the 40s, 50s and 60s and is no longer mined there but is still mined many places. They no longer irradiate meat.

[@hksp]

where can get cobalt blasted potato & meat ?

[@rtqii]

MREs

[@jeffd4056]

Mc Donald’s

[@TimperialBroadcastingAgency]

Well, if you're interested, look for a label that includes a mark that looks like this: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Radura-Symbol.svg

[@billsimpson604]

A small percentage of food is irradiated. I think they use a couple of seconds exposure to cobalt 60.

[@pfcompany885]

Uranium fever!

[@joseph-mariopelerin7028]

it so sound like they want to sell a product... regardless of consequences... and we still want more...

[@katja904]

Canada's Hidden Dirt. Already in 1978, the Canadian administration knew that the radon level was 125 times higher than allowed. (The waste had come in 1932 from the opened Port Radium mine. Then Radium, the new miracle substance 'cured' everything; it was used e.g. in self-glowing dials, etc.). Thousands of tons of mining rubble were processed (cf. to obtain one gram of radium. The Indians of the Deline area work in the mine. Suddenly 60 In the 19th century, miners began to die - from cancer. The area was named widow's village... By the residents there was no way to hold the perpetrators accountable. They hid it, and children (read: future radiation treatment center payers) were raised with radiation for 28 years..." Clock faces were painted by women. The danger was known, no one was told. Until women's jaws practically disintegrated: they used brushes in the radon painting of dials, moistened in the mouth the brush got the right shape... The miners weren't told about the dangers either: the surveyors knew and the authorities knew how to stay away from fish mines... Now, a few years ago, these same knights arrived in Finland, they are coming here to commit exactly the same genocides by the same means as in fully infected Canada. And in France - where there are 210 wells. There should be a reason for the edible mushrooms to follow where The poison of Talvivaara and the new pollution wells to be opened is heard in the dark. 12 uranium mines were opened at Lake Elliot. All their waste was dumped from Talvivaara as usual to the lakes and the Kyyjoki - which was completely polluted 90 km away. Gradually the residents died of different types of cancer, e.g. for lung cancer ... Rio Algom and Denison Uranium Mining reported more than 30 different dam breaks from mines located in the watershed (Haloo, Talvivaara). Thus, whistling, they dumped acids, heavy metals and radiation pollution into the environment, spreading them as wide as possible. Chivalrously laughing at those dying of cancer to his slaves. All the miners' houses and local roads, hehe, were of course made from the mine's radioactive waste rock. (Like Siilinjärvi 5-tie today?) A uranium oxide processing plant was built in the city of Port Hope and the production of fuel rods: the IAEA minimum requirement for a kilometer protection zone laughed knights. Hehhee: the 'protection zone' is made up of Indian slaves - 20m from the radiation of the production plant...

[@pamlabrecque7430]

I can't say for sure But you probably are right

[@cw7784]

Thats horrible and nothing done to stop it

[@PAULLONDEN]

"The handy work of god" , that sure had to be included to placate those who might got nervous about all that talking of "billions of years" ......After all it's "god's own country" where all this stuff is dug up .

[@KB4QAA]

11:20 Uravan Colorado plant.

[@markgerhart8112]

It’s all covered up from reclamation.... wonder what happens when the covering blows away....

[@alhrabe9558]

Did you spend time in uravan?

[@johnfairchild3421]

Uranium is white crystal in color

[@deafmusician2]

The burros are like "WTF??"

[@liveforphun]

It never occurred to me that these guys used to be so stupid that they would handle such material in that manner. We humans do like learning things the hard way.

[@Stevesbe]

Ahh it wasn't enriched yet

[@donnacsuti4980]

They were dumb doctors treated some skin problems with radiation in the 1940s

[@donnacsuti4980]

@@Stevesbe irrelevant still just as bad

[@sarahmorlang1728]

Not stupid, they just didn't have the knowledge we do now, don't judge what you haven't lived.

[@jeremyprovence4942]

Now let us interview the families that now have contaminated land and water, cancer, radiation poisoning etc...

[@geebopbaluba1591]

Can you just imagine how many of these men died of cancer cause I can guarantee they did.

[@inse001]

…and power our ships and PLANES…😱

[@sircampbell1249]

Funny how they left out Wyoming...

[@jodybrown4956]

Wyoming Jeffrey city near ghost town /below uranium mine ,market collapsed in early 80s.

[@sircampbell1249]

@@jodybrown4956 its back up now mine by wells...

[@christiaandelange7214]

With out gloves hey.

[@davidfisher12865]

For we all know, the only way to be sure, is with the use of nuclear weapons .yeah that will light up your cities all right. And power nuclear attack submarines.

[@larpsim]

I just watched Resident Evil: Origin - Before Raccoon City ☠️

[@darcyedmonds8848]

Well those post war paperclip merger people didn't waste any time, did they. 🙄

[@steveb60879]

Its funny how at the end of the film the narrator seems to imply that radioactivity was created / put into atoms without explicitly mentioning God.

[@GrinninPig]

Nobody believes in that crap anymore

[@terry_willis]

Sorry, God neglected to file a patent for it.

[@ats-3693]

Yeah because this is reality not a silly fairytale.

[@strykerentllc]

You missed, "The handiwork of God" at the end.

[@donnacsuti4980]

All stars are full of radiation.if God made everything long long ago then I guess he made radiation since it's what makes the sun hot and keeps us warm ( nothing is all bad and it's all tied together)

[@johnfairchild3421]

I lived in the southwest for a little while I heard horror stories. I knew were true