Yellow Dirt: Uranium's Legacy in Navajo Country

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http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/yellow-dirt-uraniums-legacy-in-navajo-country/19631805


Yazzie Mesa on the Navajo reservation in Arizona is not nearly as dramatic as the spindly rock spires and sandstone arches in Monument Valley to the west, where classic John Wayne movies were filmed. Nor is it as imposing as Comb Ridge, the sheer-walled mass rising high to its east that slashes through 80 miles of desert in Utah and Arizona.

But the relatively unassuming mesa played a vital Cold War role for the U.S. government, supplying uranium for atomic bombs. And to the Navajos who have dwelt for generations at its base, it is the wounded center of their world.

-snip-

The cleanup of the old mine at the summit was supposed to be complete; it had even won a national award and was open for grazing and hiking. But my companions wanted to show me the hundreds of small rocks with bright yellow stripes that littered the terrain. When I placed the detector against one, my machine started to chirp and the needle took a smooth swing to the right. Uranium. The harsh winds and a long drought had exposed it once more.

But the uranium wasn't just at the mine and surrounding landscape. Its radiation had lodged deep in the lungs of miners and millers who worked, barefaced and in moccasins, through the Cold War to protect Americans from the Russians. Decades passed between the time the mining company shut down operations and the first attempts at repairing the damage.

-long snip about the deadly scam and a new book about it-
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I've put this in GDP as it should be a WH issue