Alas, there are only so many nations the US can contaminate militarily at one time with its vast stockpiles of 750,000 metric tons of depleted uranium (or at least that's how much they had back in January, 2006). I guess that those who make these types of decisions are deciding that, after all, it's only fair Americans bear some of the brunt of this "sacrifice," too.
So in this Forbes article we read about "industrial uses" for the DU via the creation of other deadly gasses - and Ka-Ching goes the federal cash register!
And, of course, since no uranium gas plant is ever totally air-tight, one wonders just how they go about calculating how many residents living near these depleted uranium gas plants in Idaho, Texas, and New Mexico will be "sacrificed" in terms of illness and early demise... sacrificed that is, for the manufacture - or sale, rather - of silicon wafers!
And with more uranium poison gas plants being built, this naturally necessitates shipping more depleted uranium around the nation via trucks on our highways. So these jaunts with their "mission" of supplying the microelectronic industry with conductors, while admittedly lessening a small fraction of the DU stockpiles, certainly won't make our highways any safer.
I dunno. This cavalier attitude about finding new and innovative ways to cause greater harm to more people... on top of rampant enviro-destruction... makes one ask if the whole world gone stark-raving mad - or is it just the US?
And the more time passes, it is increasingly both reasonable and prudent to suggest - to as many people as will listen - that it actually appears as if those in power are on a mission not to prevent, but rather, to augment the radioactive contamination of the United States.
Cathy Garger
ID firm narrows search for uranium gas plant site
By JOHN MILLER 10.07.08, 1:40 PM ET A small eastern Idaho company aiming to build a $55 million plant in the West to extract industrial gases from depleted uranium has narrowed its search to four sites, including two in Idaho.
International Isotopes Inc. (otcbb: INIS.OB - news - people ) Chief Executive Steve Laflin said one of the Idaho sites is near Idaho Falls, where France's Areva (other-otc: ARVCF.PK - news - people ) NC Inc. plans a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant. The other
Idaho site hasn't been disclosed.
The company also is considering sites in Lea County, N.M., where an Areva rival is building a separate uranium enrichment facility, and in nearby Andrews County, Texas.
Laflin has said his proposed facility could be anywhere on transportation routes between uranium enrichment plants that produce depleted uranium and the facilities where uranium waste is disposed. The four locations all promise a steady supply of depleted uranium hexafluoride, from which International Isotopes would extract high-value germanium fluoride gas needed for applications including etching silicon for microelectronics.
"We're meeting with all the elected officials and all the economic development officials" in areas where the plant could be built, Laflin said Tuesday.
International Isotopes' plans are a sign uranium enrichment projects like Areva's or the one being built in New Mexico by European consortium Urenco could be economic development magnets for related businesses. Idaho Falls already is home to the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory nuclear research station.
Approximately 90 percent of uranium hexafluoride that enters enrichment facilities like the one Areva and Urenco are building re-emerges as depleted uranium, with only a small percentage becoming fuel for commercial power reactors.
International Isotopes aims to take the depleted uranium and turn it into a solid form that's more easy to dispose of, then extract the fluoride gas. The 13-year-old Idaho company has 35 employees and sales of just $4.5 million in 2007, and produces isotopes such as cobalt-60 used in medical treatments.
It operates a small pilot plant in Idaho Falls that produces fluoride gases from depleted uranium and hopes to begin commercial sales soon.
Laflin is holding public meetings in communities near the proposed sites, including a first session Tuesday in Idaho Falls, to explain his project. The gases he aims to produce are very toxic and reactive, so Laflin said the meetings are aimed at reassuring people that safety won't be ignored.
"Those materials have to be controlled under stringent standards of safety," he said. "We'll explain in these meetings what risks of those products are, and that we are safely going to control those products."
The company is evaluating several ways to raise cash for its plant, a process Laflin said hasn't been easy in the current economy.
"There can be no guarantee the capital will be available, or available under acceptable terms," International Isotopes said in a statement.
Help the US become Radiation Free!
Cathy Garger
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