Uranium mine near Grants, New Mexico
Uranium mine near Grants, New Mexico
This short video depicts uranium mine dumps in Poison Canyon, near the intersection of Hwy. 605 and Co. Rd. 23, NW of Grants, New Mexico, and shows examples of the radioactive minerals and their effect on a gamma-sensitive scintillation detector. Most of the radioactive rock here is Jurassic Todilto Limestone, containing organic black / brown uraniferous humate minerals and numerous colorful secondary uranium minerals like carnotite and tyuyamunite.
Nice NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. It’s very sensitive to gamma rays in a wide range of gamma energies. This is NORM (Naturally occurring radioactive materials). It’s not that dangerous as many think. Radioactivity is all around us. Most of this NORM is found in Sierra-Nevada batholiths and in the Rocky Mountains (plutonic rock). It’s mostly Uranium-238 and Thorium-232, and their decay nuclides. It keeps the Earth’s core hot, too.
My father was a chemist at a uranium mill that was at or very near this location. This was more than fifty years ago when I was just starting school in Grants, but I remember the mill and his labratory quite well, as I do the company picnics up on Mt. Taylor and Bluewater. Unfortunately my dad died of cancer…
Isn’t it harmful to touch?
In new mexico, we drink uranium on a daily basis.
@David Vermillion: I don’t know the coordinates, but the street address is given in the description. (Unrelated: If you want people to reply to your comments on YouTube, you need to enable comment replies using the drop-down menu at the right of your comment.)
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Wow. Interesting review indeed. What were the readings on the instrument? Did you build the scintillation probe? How much would you charge to sell a piece of the mineral from Poison Canyon.
I was born and raised in Grants. You used to be able to get around some of the mines before they started reclaiming. One on Mount Taylor wasn’t far from a small group of homes. That stuff was everywhere…
Alhambra Mine (Blue Bell Mine) ?
Gillerman E. Mineral Deposits of Western Grant County ?
Granada Prospect (Osmer Silver Prospect) ?
White Signal District ? Blue Jay Mine ?
What’s the coordinates?
@DKmhun It is most dangerous if the carnotite and such dust up and fly into the lungs. I am not sure how fragile the crystals are but many minerals can spore off quite easily into the air. Asbestos is one.
So how would you say our drinking water out here in Grants is? And how’s the air on a windy day?