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Yeah is radioactive but you can build a bed out of it and sleep on it so its not radioactive in any practical sense. And of course Toxic is not a problem becau

by nickik 8y ago

Yeah is radioactive but you can build a bed out of it and sleep on it so its not radioactive in any practical sense. And of course Toxic is not a problem because most of the metals a rare earth mine would deal with would be toxic. You can actually find heavily concentrated earth in the US that would basically count as nuclear waste because nuclear policy is so insane.

woah 8y ago
Where is this earth located?
- pp19dd 8y ago
  Quite a few places (around 13), albeit most are abandoned or inactive sites. You can locate most of these by spotting a tailings dam of some kind on Google Maps. There are three active mines, in California and Nevada owned by Molycorp Minerals, Rye Creek LLC, and Columbus SM LLC: CA: San Bernardino, Shasta, Rancho Cucamonga and Near Primm (35.478098,-115.532034) MT: Place called Rye Near Ravalli. Could not locate it manually, and the coordinates were listed incorrectly as 46.015278,-114.171389. Directions: "Turn east off of Highway 93 onto Tanner Ave. Follow it until it dead ends and turn right onto dirt road and follow it for approx 1/4 mile into mine site." NV: Esmeralda, Churchill, Pershing (38.119167,-117.993611) OR: Coos UT: Salt Lake (itself?) WA: Stevens, Grant
vanderZwan 8y ago
> Yeah is radioactive but you can build a bed out of it and sleep on it so its not radioactive in any practical sense. Eh, you're technically correct in the sense that you can also make a bed out of asbestos and sleep on it and be fine, as long as it doesn't become airborne. Sure, you won't get thorium in your system as quickly but it's still a material that you probably don't want in your household or in the environment in general if you don't need it. I do agree that in the general sense fears of radioactivity are exaggerated, and even then only selectively: those scanners we installed at all airports in the last decade will also cause more incidences of cancer, but you hardly ever hear anyone about that. What should be feared more is the mining industry not giving a shit about human health, the environment or, for the lack of a better term, "the commons". If the waste of the mining industry ends up in the groundwater we do have a big problem. And in practice this is not an "if", it's a "when", or even "how long will it take before they are found out this time and still get away with it".
- bdamm 8y ago
  > those scanners we installed at all airports in the last decade will also cause more incidences of cancer, but you hardly ever hear anyone about that. Right; because compared to the radiation dose you get during the flight itself, it's nothing.
  - basicplus2 8y ago
    That is a different form of radiation
- ataturk 8y ago
  Those scanners made Level3 Systems and other government contractors billions of dollars, so you just pipe down, citizen!
- nickik 8y ago
  There are tons of thing in that are unhealthy if the become airbourn. It is like many other forms of rare earth mining. So not having a domestic rare earth industry because of thorium regulation is totally insane.
MR4D 8y ago
To Woah: You might look here [0]. A great quote about the radiation levels: "Searching for uranium is in some ways easier than for other mineral resources because the radiation signature of uranium's decay products allows deposits to be identified and mapped from the air." Key phrase: mapped from the air That's a pretty high level. [0] http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/mining-of-uranium/uranium-mining-overview.aspx http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fue...
- gh02t 8y ago
  It's not so much that it's highly radioactive as it is that radiation detectors are really sensitive. It's not inert, but its specific activity is pretty low. The types of radiation it emits do mean it is significantly more dangerous if you breathe it (say as dust) or otherwise absorb it into your body.
- 8note 8y ago
  My family does airborne mineral exploration, and it's the same for thorium (we look for three types of radiation to determine whether a certain spot is likely to be uranium: uranium, potassium, and thorium) the benefit is that you can directly tell that it's uranium due to it giving off specific wavelengths, vs with diamonds, you need significant interpretation of the data to look for not-diamonds and hope that there are diamonds there too
Spooky23 8y ago
The problem is that the output of mining isn't a big, hard Thorium bed. It's going to be a big mountain of loose ore contaminating the water table. It's like lead in car batteries. Lead is incredibly toxic, but is mostly safe in that application, as there is a very tight chain of custody for batteries and good recycling programs.

by nickik 8y ago

woah 8y ago

Where is this earth located?

pp19dd 8y ago
Quite a few places (around 13), albeit most are abandoned or inactive sites. You can locate most of these by spotting a tailings dam of some kind on Google Maps. There are three active mines, in California and Nevada owned by Molycorp Minerals, Rye Creek LLC, and Columbus SM LLC: CA: San Bernardino, Shasta, Rancho Cucamonga and Near Primm (35.478098,-115.532034) MT: Place called Rye Near Ravalli. Could not locate it manually, and the coordinates were listed incorrectly as 46.015278,-114.171389. Directions: "Turn east off of Highway 93 onto Tanner Ave. Follow it until it dead ends and turn right onto dirt road and follow it for approx 1/4 mile into mine site." NV: Esmeralda, Churchill, Pershing (38.119167,-117.993611) OR: Coos UT: Salt Lake (itself?) WA: Stevens, Grant

vanderZwan 8y ago

> Yeah is radioactive but you can build a bed out of it and sleep on it so its not radioactive in any practical sense. Eh, you're technically correct in the sense that you can also make a bed out of asbestos and sleep on it and be fine, as long as it doesn't become airborne. Sure, you won't get thorium in your system as quickly but it's still a material that you probably don't want in your household or in the environment in general if you don't need it. I do agree that in the general sense fears of radioactivity are exaggerated, and even then only selectively: those scanners we installed at all airports in the last decade will also cause more incidences of cancer, but you hardly ever hear anyone about that. What should be feared more is the mining industry not giving a shit about human health, the environment or, for the lack of a better term, "the commons". If the waste of the mining industry ends up in the groundwater we do have a big problem. And in practice this is not an "if", it's a "when", or even "how long will it take before they are found out this time and still get away with it".

bdamm 8y ago
> those scanners we installed at all airports in the last decade will also cause more incidences of cancer, but you hardly ever hear anyone about that. Right; because compared to the radiation dose you get during the flight itself, it's nothing.
- basicplus2 8y ago
  That is a different form of radiation
ataturk 8y ago
Those scanners made Level3 Systems and other government contractors billions of dollars, so you just pipe down, citizen!
nickik 8y ago
There are tons of thing in that are unhealthy if the become airbourn. It is like many other forms of rare earth mining. So not having a domestic rare earth industry because of thorium regulation is totally insane.

MR4D 8y ago

To Woah: You might look here [0]. A great quote about the radiation levels: "Searching for uranium is in some ways easier than for other mineral resources because the radiation signature of uranium's decay products allows deposits to be identified and mapped from the air." Key phrase: mapped from the air That's a pretty high level. [0] http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/mining-of-uranium/uranium-mining-overview.aspx http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fue...

gh02t 8y ago
It's not so much that it's highly radioactive as it is that radiation detectors are really sensitive. It's not inert, but its specific activity is pretty low. The types of radiation it emits do mean it is significantly more dangerous if you breathe it (say as dust) or otherwise absorb it into your body.
8note 8y ago
My family does airborne mineral exploration, and it's the same for thorium (we look for three types of radiation to determine whether a certain spot is likely to be uranium: uranium, potassium, and thorium) the benefit is that you can directly tell that it's uranium due to it giving off specific wavelengths, vs with diamonds, you need significant interpretation of the data to look for not-diamonds and hope that there are diamonds there too

Spooky23 8y ago

The problem is that the output of mining isn't a big, hard Thorium bed. It's going to be a big mountain of loose ore contaminating the water table. It's like lead in car batteries. Lead is incredibly toxic, but is mostly safe in that application, as there is a very tight chain of custody for batteries and good recycling programs.