U.S. Mining for “Clean” Green Energy or Tritium Nuclear “Tasmanian Devil”?

Boom and Bust! Looks like a fiery “gold rush” in California.

Sure, focus has been on the booms of Ukraine-Russia. And countries and corporations building and rebuilding nuclear reactor plants want to keep it that way, starting with America and their “Aging Nukes.” U.S., you’re busted.

U.S. mining for “clean” green energy or tritium nuclear “Tasmanian devil”? Days of digging in mines are being rekindled. Except NOW, it’s about “green metals” or “rare earths,” not gold or fossil fuels.

Unlike ‘golden nuggets,’ the digging of these metals means dealing with a lot of toxic waste being dumped on land and water. So why this oxymoronic pursuit for “clean” energy?

China’s Low Labor and High Environmental cost has got the US by the economic and security balls. “Today, China controls more than 71% of the world’s extraction and 87% of the world’s processing capacity of rare earths.” But it’s not stopping the US from trying.

Arizona, like California, has jumped on the nutty green bandwagon. According to Jonathan Thompson at High Country News:

“The Hermosa Mine is just one of scores of mining projects sprouting across the West to feed the global hunger for the so-called green metals used in clean energy technologies and electric vehicles, from the lithium, cobalt and nickel in EV and grid-scale batteries, to the rare earth elements.”

But don’t be fooled by the US President’s call to “build back better.” Are manufacturing jobs coming back or mining? Jobs for US citizens or thousands of migrants entering southern border? US or foreign owned mines?

It’s a World Wild West. “South32 Ltd, the Australian company that has owned Hermosa since 2018, told Bloomberg that it’s accelerating its plans to re-open and expand the mine in order to supply electric vehicle manufacturers, who are “super keen” to get their hands on the battery-grade manganese buried on the property.” General Motors is said to be on top of their list.

Sure gives a new meaning to foreign interference and transnational corporate capitalism. But what of the dangers of bad foreign policy or deregulation on economy and health?  It’s gone from bad to worse, not just on land but sea.

A “ship of fools” sailing from New Zealand landed on Sydney (later bound for Melbourne). Seems the Majestic Princess cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 had “800 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus docked in downtown Sydney.” Again? Weren’t these ships tagged petri dishes due to the large number of people resulting in many getting sick or dying?

Reminds me of the deadly element cobalt 60 that killed those in close proximity but not before days of sweating, coughing, and nose bleeds in the 1959 film “City of Fear.” What precautions are being taken? Apparently none. Greed is conveniently blind.

“On Oct. 7, Australia-based Jervois Global, officially launched operations at its cobalt mine in a historic mining district a few miles outside Idaho’s Frank Church Wilderness. It’s the only cobalt mine in the U.S. so far, and it should be lucrative…” It gets better or worse depending on how you look at it.

Better for big business and worse for Americans, especially Natives who have strong ties to the land. “Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of global mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto, has been yearning to mine the massive deposit of copper buried deep beneath Chíchʼil Bił Dagoteel, or Oak Flat, since before Tesla was even founded.”

Right, it’s really not all about the eCar but about social media and tech gadgets, especially the one you’re holding. Apple and Facebook trump all others followed by that fleabag online market you order shit from. 

Yet, one doesn’t have to look far away to the Aussies. In the Americas, we find past and present misdeeds. Reports of thousands of graves were discovered in Canada, and found to be Indian Natives. Findings may now be magnified by new mine waste and ground water concerns for those in the US.

It seems a past plan for mining copper “purposed for the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson, Arizona, on ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribe” is making a comeback:

“Now, Canada-based Hudbay has rebranded the proposal as the “Copper World Complex,” a three-pit mine that, according to the company, “will support a stronger domestic supply of the copper we need to drive our green energy future.” But, what they leave out is the billions of groundwater used in the process, not to mention toxic dumping.

Canada, you tried hiding your past misdeeds underground. But as you can see, the past caught up with you. In turn, will these mining plans with your southern neighbor “blow up in your face?”

Tritium, the Nuclear “Tasmanian Devil”?

As to toxic chemicals and nuclear waste dumped, reports of US, Canada and European countries dumping in India, Asia, Africa, and South America are ongoing. Military dumping too is well known. So it comes as no surprise that American as well as overseas companies are continuing this trend via extraction of minerals from mines.

“Energy Fuels has taken to running radioactive waste through the facility, then dumping it in its tailings ponds in return for “recycling fees,” effectively becoming a nuclear waste dump for hire.”

Speaking of NUCLEAR, heard of Tritium? “Nuclear reactors and tritium processing facilities are also sources of controlled releases of tritium.”

Says Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) on Nuclear Safety “Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen…absorbed into the body through the skin or when ingested through water or food, or when inhaled.” Apparently, not well controlled.

As more and more countries are operating, reopening or building new nuclear plants, consider Tritium limits for drinking water may have risen since 2009 as noted by CNSC:

Australia	76,103
Finland	30,000
WHO	10,000
Switzerland	10,000
Russia	7,700
Canada (Ontario)	7,000
United States	740
European Union1	1001
ODWAC proposed limits	20
California Public Health Goal (not enforceable)	14.8

Recall the 2011 public news release of “Radioactive tritium leaks found at 48 US nuke sites,”? Yep, more bad pipes. Seems an engineer in the industry blew the whistle, “You got pipes that have been buried underground for 30 or 40 years, and they’ve never been inspected, and the NRC is looking the other way,” said engineer Paul Blanch.”

Speaking of pipes and problems at that time, for “Exelon …piping problems are just a fact of life.” Well, what’s also a fact of life are M&A’s and “spin-off” scum companies that pass their shit to others. Seems Exelon merged in 2012 with Constellation Energy Corporation only to spin off in 2022. And so it seems that the so called energy corporation is no more.

How do white collar criminals “get away with murder” of blue collar working people? No surprise, the answer is as old as their corrosive pipes.

“Like rust under a car, corrosion has propagated for decades along the hard-to-reach, wet underbellies of the reactors — generally built in a burst of construction during the 1960s and 1970s…the AP uncovered evidence that despite government and industry programs to bring the causes of such leaks under control, breaches have become more frequent and widespread.”

Irony, if not a farce, is that companies like Energy Fuels, Exelon, and Constellation Energy Corporation AND Government so called Regulators claim to be “helping to produce in the U.S. the materials for many clean energy and advanced technologies.” In the name of green energy or green dollars? Actually, it’s “strategic alternative.”

Culprits are part of the problem not solution. Toxic Nuclear Dumpers parading with clean energy slogans. It’s that simple. Right, it’s “digging for gold” or the elements. Or, what industry refers to as Technology-Critical Elements (TCEs). As Sherlock Holmes said to Dr. Watson, “It’s elementary my dear Watson.”

Call it what you will, “Aging Nukes, regulators and industry have worked in concert to loosen safety standards to keep the plants operating.” Again, US, you’re busted.

But will you be ready for booms! How bad? Ask Ukraine, Russia and Japan.

Given recent nuclear developments, I don’t think the force will be less than “3 miles.”  Impact will extend many kilometers and years.