Radiation dangers around iron ore mines?

B

Backwoods_VT

Joined
Mar 27, 2006
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The other day i was hiking and came upon an old abandoned iron ore mine in new jersey. on the ground were some kind of metalic tailings sort of gold in color. I was wondering when iror ore was mined and dug up was it also mixed with things like uranium. My real question is could small scraps of uranium be mixed in with all the iron tailings that i was walking thru, or when mining iron ore there is no uranium involved as a by product. Thanks for the answers guys. I knew i should have paid attention in science class.p.s also what i was worried about was that id be tracking some tailings on my boots then into my car and into the house.
 
Gold in color - maybe iron pyrite [ fool's gold !] NJ has quite a history of iron making in the old days .That includes bog iron , iron nodules in rivers and iron mines .The only radiaton I know of off hand is radon and that's mostly in the Ramapo mountains...If you're nervous get a gieger counter !!
 
If you did get a geiger counter, you would find things like granite blocks, smoke detectors, and Coleman lantern mantles have radiation spewing out. You can think of it like heat but without the sensation; a little bit of it might feel warm and won't damage skin and organs much. Your body can replenish the few cells that are damaged easily. A lot of radiation that's concentrated will injure cells, not unlike a burn from too much heat from a stove. Radiation that concentrated in nature is pretty rare.
 
Uranium is something like the 40th most common element on the earth's surface. It's all around us, everywhere. And it's nothing to worry about.







Now, should I tell him about Americium? No. I don't think so.
 
Gollnick writes:

Gollnick said:
Uranium is something like the 40th most common element on the earth's surface. It's all around us, everywhere. And it's nothing to worry about.
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Yaaa until you eat 10 lbs of it!!!

Then Look Out!! :)

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
Normark said:
Yaaa until you eat 10 lbs of it!!!
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10lbs of a lot of stuff will kill you. For a 200lbs man, the LD50 of table salt is 0.6lbs. (LD50 is lethal dose 50%, the dose that proves fatal about 50% of the time.)
 
mete said:
If you're nervous get a gieger counter !!
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I think that would send him over the edge! It can be pretty unnerving to hold the thing up to a brick wall and hear it take off.

We used to play with a few of those in JR. high. Then, of course, it was fun to find the most reactive thing you could.
 
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