The primary uranium minerals in commercial ores are uraninite (UO₂), pitchblende (U₃O₈), coffinite (U(SiO₄), brannerite (UTi₂O₆), davidite ((REE)(Y,U)(Ti,Fe³)₂₀O₃₈) and thucholite (Uranium-bearing pyrobitumen). There are a number of other common uranium minerals which form hydrated crystals incorporating water molecules.

          The mineralogy of the host minerals, the reduction-oxidation potential of the uranium mineral and the porosity which determines water infiltration are important factors in the formation of uranium deposits. Since uranium is highly soluble, it can be easily moved around by the flow of water underground. This contributed to the variety of places and manners in which uranium may accumulate. The way in which uranium interacts with other elements and compounds in melted rock also influences its distribution.

          Combinations of surface weathering, sedimentation, diagenetic, magmatic and hydropthermal geological processes mentioned in a previous post produce fifteen general types of uranium deposits.

         The richest uranium ore deposits are found near unconformities. An unconformity is a break in between two layers of rock that have been laid down at different times. In the case of uranium deposits, the two layers are a quartz rich sedimentary layer and a metamorphic layer has been altered by heat and pressure. These deposits were formed between two billion five hundred million years ago and five hundred million years ago.

         The second best uranium ore deposits form in sedimentary deposits on continental shelves and freshwater areas such as river deltas, lakes, etc. In an oxygen rich environment, the uranium dissolves and then moves with the water. When it encounters an oxygen poor or reducing environment, it precipitates out of solution.

         Tabular deposits occur parallel to groundwater flow in sandstone. The ores are rich but the deposits are small.

         Roll front uranium deposits form when ground water dissolves the uranium in sandstone and, after flowing underground, collides with some sort of organic matter rich in carbon. The uranium precipitates out at the “front” when the water encounters the organic material.

         Basal channel deposits form from moving ground water like the tabular and roll front deposits, but the deposition occurs along channels of moving surface water such are rivers. When the water evaporates along desert margins or in shallow saline ponds, the uranium is deposited.

         Quartz-pebble conglomerate deposits are created by the separation and movement of particles of uranium in flows of surface water and their deposit in river beds, river deltas and lakes. These deposits generally contain large quantities of low grade ore

          Breccia complex deposits contain uranium along with iron oxide, copper, gold, silver and rare earth elements. Hydrothermal processes enriched the uranium content of  the quartz-hematite breccias.

          Vein deposits are uranium minerals filling in cracks, veins, fractures and breccias in steeply dipping fault systems. Magmatic processes in molten rock create the veins and later hydrothermal activity can concentrate the uranium. Some veins contain a variety of other metals in combination with the uranium.

          Intrusive uranium deposits form when magma is forced into older rocks deep within the Earth’s crust.

          Marine sedimentary deposits of phosphorite (which contain large amounts of phosphorus) sometimes contain uranium.

          Collapsed breccia pipe deposits are created when vertical cylindrical cavities formed by groundwater dissolving limestone are filled with fragments of rock when they collapse. Uranium fills cavities and coats other rocks.

          Volcanic deposits of uranium may be formed by magmatic processes in the molten rock or later mineralization by groundwater and chemical processes. Such deposits are usually small with low grade ore.

          Surface deposits can form in peat bogs, karst caverns and in soil from the weathering of shallow sedimentary deposits of uranium.

          Metasomite deposits are the result of uranium minerals being distributed in rocks that have been subjected to sodium metasomatism which is chemical alteration by hot subsurface solutions of sodium.

          Metamorphic deposits were laid down by sedimentary or magmatic processes and then remained unaltered by any other processes.

          Lignite is a soft brown young coal derived from wood. Some deposits contain significant amounts of uranium minerals.

          Black shale deposits form in oxygen-free submarine sedimentation processes. The uranium is not mineralized by organic materials due to the lack of oxygen. These deposits are considered very low grade ores.

          There are many other types of uranium minerals but these fifteen types constitute the pool from which uranium ores are chosen for extraction.

Sedimentary layers:

          Uranium is a very common element present in greater quantities than silver. The term “clarke” refers to the average concentration of a particular element in the Earth’s crust.  The clarke of uranium is about 4 parts per million while the clarke of silver is about 1 part per million, the clarke of aluminum is 82,000 parts per million and iron is 63,000 parts per million.

          The term “ore” refers to a mineral deposit which contains a sufficient concentration of a valuable metal to make extraction of that metal profitable. Mineral are formed by geological processes. The four processes that are the most important for formation of uranium minerals are:

1. The accumulation of uranium ores by tiny flakes pickup up as rain water runs off the land into a body of water when the flakes settle into of sedimentary deposits. When the body of water disappears, the soft sediment eventually become solid rock.
2. After sedimentary deposit, there are changes in the distribution of particular elements referred to as “diagenesis.” These are low temperature low pressure changes as the sediment is compressed, liquids are squeezed out, chemicals precipitate out of solution. Oxygen in the sediment may combine with uranium forming oxides.
3. “Magmatic segregation” is a process in which minerals become locally concentrated during the circulation, cooling and crystallization of molten rock. As the molten rock cools, different minerals solidify at different temperatures. Then they may move up or down based on their density.
4. During “hydrothermal circulation”, water penetrates down rock and then is moved back up out of the rock by a source of heat such as underlying magma. As the water rises it carries minerals out of the rock it is moving through and ultimately deposits those minerals.

          In Gabon, in Africa, a combination of these processes concentrated uranium to the point where a natural “reactor” was formed that generated heat for hundreds of thousands of years. J. Marvin Herndon has a theory that there is a natural nuclear fission “georeator” driven by an accumulation of uranium at the Earth’s core. He believes that this reactor is responsible for the magnetic field of the Earth that permits life to exist.

            Most known uranium deposits formed near areas that experienced volcanism and intrusions of magma. Although uranium is present in many minerals, the quantities are too small to make extraction profitable. Concentration is the most important qualification for a commercial ore. The two most concentrated uranium minerals are pitchblende and uraninite which can contain up to 85% uranium. Carnotite, torbernite, tyuyamunite, autunite, uranophane, and brannerite uranium minerals that may contain up to 60% uranium. In addition to concentration, a good ore must have uranium that is not bound up in a complicated chemical compound that would make it difficult to extract. The distribution of the uranium through the mineral deposit is also important. If it is too sparse in the deposit, then that deposit would not make a good ore.

            Uranium may be present in throughout the crust of the earth and may be found in many minerals but deposits of commercial grade uranium ores are not all that common and are highly sought after.

Picture of pitchblende by Geomartin:

 

          Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive chemical element. It was formed in super novae explosions about 6.6 billion years ago. In its pure form it is a silvery colored heavy metal. It is 70% denser than lead but not quite as dense as gold and will burn in a powdered form. A little softer than steel, it is malleable, ductile, paramagnetic, weakly electropositive and a poor conductor of electricity. It will oxidize in air and can be dissolved by acids.

          Uranium is a common element that is present in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rocks and water. It is thought to be forty times as abundant as silver. Uranium can react with most of the non-metallic elements and their compounds. Hundreds of minerals contain uranium. Uraninite, autunite, uranphane, torbernite, coffinite and pitchblende are common ores of uranium with uraninite being the most abundant.

          The most common and stable form of uranium found in nature is an oxide called triuranium. Each molecule contains 3 uranium atoms and 8 oxygen atoms. Uranium dioxide which contains 1 atom of uranium and 2 atoms of oxygen is the most common nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors.

          The symbol for uranium is the letter “U”. The nucleus of the uranium atom contains 92 protons which is the atomic number. In the periodic table, uranium is a member of the actinoids group of transitional elements. Some of the actinoids do not occur in nature and are created by nuclear transmutation processes.

          The nucleus of the uranium atom also contains from 141 to 146 neutrons creating six different isotopes referred to as U-233 to U-238. All of the isotopes are unstable and radioactive. Most (99.274 %) of natural uranium is in the form of the U-238 isotope. A little (.720 %) natural uranium is the U-235 isotope and a tiny (.005%) amount is U-234.

          Uranium decays slowly by emission of particle consisting of two protons and two neutrons also known as an alpha particle. The half-life of U-238 is 4.5 billion years and the half-life of U-235 is 700 million years. Uranium, thorium and plutonium are the three fissile elements which can disintegrate into lighter elements. Isotopes of these elements go through radioactive decay processes where a series of elements create other elements until a stable non-radioactive element is reached.

           U-235 is the only naturally occurring elementary isotope that is capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction. When bombarded with slow neutrons, U-235 converts temporarily to U-238 which immediately disintegrates into the noble gas krypton, Kr-85, the alkaline earth metal barium, Ba-141creating heat and release more neutrons. The K5-85 and Ba-141 are unstable and also decay. If more U-235 atoms are hit by these neutrons, a chain reaction can occur. It is thought that the heat generated by the disintegration of U-235 provides most of the heat in the interior of the Earth that keeps the core liquid and drives plate tectonics.

 

          A piece of yellow glass made around 79 AD colored with uranium from found near Naples, Italy is the first known use of uranium. The uranium mineral called pitchblende or uraninite was noticed and reported as long ago as 1565 in mines in Saxony in northwest Germany. Uranium was first recovered in 1789 from analysis of mineral samples from the Joachimsal silver mine in the Czech Republic by a German chemist named Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Klaproth named this new mineral for the planet Uranus. Within the next 15 years, uranium was found in England, France, Austria and Romania but in ores much poorer that in the mines of Joachimsal.

          During the 1800s, uranium ore was extracted as a byproduct of mining in Saxony, Bohemia and Cornwall. Oxides of uranium were used for fabrication of steel alloys, chemical experiments and as a pigment to add color to dyes, inks, glass and ceramics. Vases and glassware were given a yellow-green color and crockery was colored from orange to bright red with the addition of uranium.

          Pure metallic uranium was first prepared by the French chemist Eugene Peligot in 1841. In 1870, Russian Chemist Dimitri Mendeleyev used his periodic table classification system to show that uranium was the heaviest and highest atomic weight element naturally present on Earth. By 1900, over 1000 scientific papers had been published on the chemical and health effects of uranium.

          In 1896, French chemist Henri Becquerel discovered natural radioactivity when he noticed that uranium salts left near photographic plates fogged the plates. Marie and Pierre Curie followed up on Becquerel’s research and discovered a new element in 1898 they named radium. Ernest Rutherford from New Zealand and  English chemist Frederick Soddy proposed a theory of radioactive transformation. Radium was understood to have been created by the transmutation of uranium. Eventually it was found that naturally occurring uranium was weakly radioactive and that through a process of decay, a series of elements was created with the final element being non-radioactive lead.

          During the early Twentieth century, uranium was overshadowed by its daughter element, radium. Increasing demand for radium used in creating fluorescence displays and tumor treatments increased the demand for uranium and uranium mining expanded. Prior to World War II, most of the uranium mined in the United States came from mixed ores of vanadium and uranium.

          In the 1930, Leo Szilard conceived of a chain reaction which he believed could be fueled by uranium. A few years after his discovery, he contacted Albert Einstein because he feared that Germany might be able to use uranium to create weapons. They sent a letter to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and begged him to seriously consider this possibility.

          In 1939, Otto Hahn in Germany created the first confirmed example of nuclear fission. As the world drifted towards war, the United States started the top secret Manhattan Project to develop a bomb based on chain reactions of uranium. Enrico Fermi led a team to create the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago. In 1942, Fermi and his team achieved the first controlled nuclear reaction.

          Picture of a Depression Era glass vase colored with uranium taken by JJ Harrison ([email protected]):

 

          The main location for testing nuclear bombs in the United States between 1951 and 1962 was the Nevada Test Site. Eighty six nuclear bombs were exploded either at ground level or above and fourteen nuclear devices were exploded underground. Radioactive materials were injected into the atmosphere from all the tests. The government told people to sit outside and watch the mushroom clouds caused by the explosions. Many badges which registered radiation exposure were distributed and collect by the Atomic Energy Commission to study radiation levels near the explosions.

          A study by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) published in 1997 determined that these Nevada tests released large amounts of radioactive iodine-131 over a large are of the continental United States, especially in the early 1950s. The NCI study estimated that up to seventy five thousand additional cases of thyroid cancer may be caused by the radiation released in these tests. A report released by the Scientific Research Society suggests that over twenty thousand radiation caused cancers and two thousand deaths from leukemia will be caused by the Nevada tests and other causes of global radioactive fallout.

          The Nevada Test Site is covered with contaminated dust that is still poses a threat when moved by winds, storms or non-radioactive bomb tests. A proposed test of a seven hundred pound conventional bomb scheduled for 2007 was cancelled after public protest over the radioactive fallout that would result.

          In 1990, the United States passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to provide monetary compensation for people who contracted cancer or a number of other specific diseases as a result of their exposure to nuclear fallout from U.S. nuclear tests. RECA provides for $50,000 for individuals who were working or residing downwind from nuclear tests. Workers who were actually involved in the nuclear tests are entitled to $75,000 compensation.

          The bill was amended in 2000 to include more geographic areas, additional categories of workers, lower levels of exposures and changes to the disease list. In order to qualify for compensation, there are a number of requirements including proof of location and duration of residence or work in a designated area. Medical records must be provided documenting the probable origin and progression of the disease. The requirement requirements are stringent and some individuals have had difficulty meeting them.

          The geographic area covered by the RECA with respect to downwinders includes “in Arizona – Apache, Coconino, Gila, Navajo, Yavapai;  In Nevada – Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Nye, White Pine or the northern portion of Clark;  In Utah – Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sevier, Washington or Wayne.”

 

          The disease conditions covered by the RECA include “Primary cancers that are covered under this program: Bile ducts, Bladder, Brain, Breast(male and female), Colon/Rectal, Esophagus, Gall Bladder, Leukemia’s(other than CLL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia), Liver(except if there is evidence of cirrhosis or Hepatitis B), Lung, Multiple Myeloma, Nasal Pharynx, Lymphomas(other than Hodgkin’s disease), Ovary, Pancreas, Salivary Gland, Small Intestine, Stomach and Thyroid.”

            There are a number of websites set up to provide information on the RECA and to assist in recovering compensation under the act. These links are provided for the sole purpose of information and do not constitute a recommendation or an endorsement of the organizations or services provided.

         The National Cancer Benefits Center for Downwinders.

           Law offices of Laura J Taylor

           U.S. Department of Justice

            Yahoo Downwinders Forum

 

Blue shaded area of the map is the geographic extent covered by the RECA:

The following radioactive materials were released into the air by the Hanford facility between 1944 and 1972.

 

Material:	Half-Life:
Iodine-131	8 days
Iodine-129	16 million years
Tritium (H-3)	12 years
Krypton-85	11 years
Strontium-89	50 days
Strontium-90	29 years
Ruthenium-103	39 days
Ruthenium-106	370 days
Tellurium-132	78 hours
Xenon-133	5 days
Cesium-137	30 years
Cerium-144	284 days
Plutonium-239	24,000 years

 

          The following radioactive materials were released into the Columbia River by the Hanford facility between 1944 and 1971.

 

Material:	Half-Life:
Iodine-131	8 days
Sodium-24	15 hours
Phosphorous-32	14 days
Chromium-51	28 days
Manganese-56	2.5 hours
Zinc-65	245 days
Gallium-72	14 hours
Arsenic-76	26 hours
Yttrium-90	64 hours
Neptunium-239	2.4 days

 

 

          The following hazardous but non radioactive materials were discharged into the Columbia River.

 

sodium dichromate	sodium hydroxide
aluminum sulfate	sodium silicate
bauxite	ferric acid
sulfuric acid	hydrazine
chlorine	morpholine
polyacrylamide	ammonium hydroxide

 

Since 1986 the government has releases millions of pages of information about the operation of the Hanford facility but there are billions of pages of information about nuclear weapons production that have not been released.

                                                                                       Source: www.downwinders.com

          In 1990, thousands of people who were exposed to radioactive materials as a result of Hanford operations filed suit against former contractors who operated the Hanford site for the United States government including DuPont and General Electric.

          All the Hanford Downwinder lawsuits were been consolidated into a single class action lawsuit called the In re Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation. The trial began in March of 2005. Thirty people were selected to act as “bellweather” plaintiffs for the trial, fifteen by the prosecution and fifteen by the defendants. Their medical histories were examined in detail and out of this pool of thirty, twelve were selected. These people acted as representatives for the three thousand plaintiffs in order to simplify the proceedings.

          The jury found sufficient evidence for awards to three of the plaintiffs, another three cases were dismissed prior to the trial. The outcome of the trial was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court.

          In 2007the Ninth Circuit Court upheld the awards to two of the plaintiffs. The Ninth Circuit Court generally upheld the actions of the lower court but did set a higher standard for deciding in favor of the plaintiffs which may limit the number of plaintiffs that will ultimately receive awards.

          In January 2010 the Court created  a trial track to test the radiation models being used by the plaintiffs to help achieve agreement between the defendants and plaintiff. The Court also created a mediation track to worked on settle a group of claims. The mediation track was split into two tracks. One track was focused on thirty two thyroid cancer claims file by one set of law firms. The other track was set up to work on another fourty claims randomly selected from suits filed by other law firms.

          In 2011, the mediation tracks were declared a failure and the cases being mediated were set to proceed to trial although some of the cases were resolved by mediation.

          In January of 2012, two trial tracks were established to adjudicate thyroid cancer and thyroid nodule claims. The original thyroid cancer trial track has been cancelled.

          The www.downwinders.com website has been established as a resource for Hanford Downwinders Litigation Information. Further information on the Hanford Downwinder lawsuits can be found on this site.

 

          The United States government began construction at Hanford in south central Washington State in 1943. Three nuclear reactors and two chemical processing plants were built and operated at Hanford during the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons for use in World War II. The U.S. government retained private contractors including DuPont and General Electric to oversee the production of materials for nuclear weapons.

            Because of the war time pressure and inexperience with radioactive materials, the routine production of plutonium fuel for the reactors resulted in the release of large quantities of radioactive materials into the air, water and soil around the plants, including large amounts of iodine-131. Hanford did not install filters on the stacks of the plutonium processing plants until 1948. After 1948, Hanford continued to release radioactive materials and other hazardous chemicals into the air, soil and water including the Columbia River. By 1955, there were eight reactors in operation at Hanford. River water from the Columbia was used to cool these reactors and was contaminated with radioactivity, toxic chemicals and excessive heat.

            Over four billion gallons of contaminated liquids were released by Hanford operations. These releases contaminated over two hundred square miles of ground water under Hanford. In the 1960s Hanford began shutting down reactors and plants with the last plutonium plant and reactor being shut down in the late 1980s as a result of complaints by citizen action groups that the plants could not be operated safety without danger to the environment.

            In 1986, a release of millions of pages of Hanford documents by the U.S. Department of Energy revealed that over seventy five thousand square miles had been contaminated with radioactivity by Hanford’s operations. The Columbia River carried radioactivity as far as the Washington and Oregon coasts. Contaminated air from Hanford is thought to have traveled over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and parts of Canada.

            People who lived downwind from Hanford or who used water from the Columbia River downstream from Hanford were exposed to levels of radiation far above normal background levels from breathing contaminated air or consuming foods such as milk and cheese from cows and goats who grazed on contaminated vegetation. The contamination in the water of the Columbia River was concentrated in the fish and other aquatic life in the river. The waterfowl and other wildlife in the area which fed on the fish then became contaminated. The contaminated fish were especially injurious to the Native Americans who depend on the salmon in the Columbia River for their livelihood.

          Estimates of the number of people who may have had their health threatened by radioactivity released by Hanford over the past seventy years are as high as two million. The U.S. Department of Energy collaborated with the Hanford Health Information Network to educate the public on the dangers of radiation release from Hanford. Class action law suits have been working their way through the courts for years seeking compensations for health problems caused by Hanford radiation.

          The term “downwinders” refers to people, either individually or in communities, who have been exposed to radioactive materials as a result of nuclear fuel mining, nuclear weapons production and testing, nuclear waste disposal or nuclear accidents. The term derives from the fact that people who are downwind of an event that expels radioactive particles and gases into the atmosphere will be exposed to the fallout when the particles move through the air and fall to the ground. The common use of the term now includes radioactive contamination of ground water and the food chain as well as the atmosphere.

            Increased appearance of cancers, non-cancerous thyroid disease and congenital malformations have been documented in many communities that have been exposed to radioactive contamination from diverse sources. The Linear No-Threshold Model is used to estimated the exposure of individuals to radioactive contamination based on the amount of radiation and the length of exposure. Other demographic factors also have an impact on the way that radiation exposure affects the health of a particular community.

            Since 1945, there have been an estimated 2,000 nuclear devices exploded worldwide. The United States alone has exploded over 1,000 nuclear bombs. Up to 1980,  there were about 500 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by the U.S, U.S.S.R. U.K., France and China with the U.S. accounting for over 300. Most of the U.S. tests took place in Nevada or the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands. However, tests have also been conducted in Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi and New Mexico.

          Nuclear explosions create the famous “mushroom cloud”. After the cloud reaches it maximum height, it begins to move downwind. Churning in the cloud spreads radioactive particles and gases throughout. Larger particles tend to settle near the site of the explosion while smaller particles and gases can be distributed across the world by the jet stream. Some clouds even reach the stratosphere and their radioactive materials may remain there for years until they finally fall to the ground.  While downwinder refers to someone near a nuclear event, in a very real sense, everyone in the world is downwind of nuclear fallout.

            Early in the Nuclear Age, the main concern about health risks of radioactive exposure centered on the fear that radiation would cause genetic damage and result in birth defects in the children of the people exposed. Subsequently it was found that the major risk was not genetic damage but damage to the health of the exposed people. Cancers that develop over the years following exposure are the main problem but there are also other types of tissue damage and illnesses resulting from radiation exposure.

            In 1963, many nuclear nations and other nations who did not yet have nuclear weapons signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty pledging to not test nuclear bombs in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space.. The Soviet Union stopped testing in 1990, the U.K. stopped in 1991, the U.S. conducted its last underground test in 1992 and France and China stopped testing in 1996.  North Korea tested a nuclear device in 2009. In 1996, the United States and several other nuclear powers drew up the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996. The Treaty will come into effect after all signatory countries file ratification documentation with the United Nations. To date, the United. States Congress has not ratified the CTBT.

          Shortly after the discovery of X rays in 1895, papers began appearing in scientific publications about the negative effects of high levels of exposure to such radiation. In the first year, suggestions about how to protect against ionizing radiation were made including the three main measures that are still emphasized today, limit the exposure to the shortest possible time, maintain as great a distance from the source as possible and employ shielding of some sort.

          In 1925 the First International Congress of Radiology was held in London, England. The issue of the need for a committee to consider protection against radiation was raised at the conference and, during the Second Congress in 1928, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) was launched. 

         The ICRP is an independent international organization dedicated to radiological protection. It is a Registered Charity in the United Kingdoms and has a Scientific Secretariat in Ottawa, Canada.

          Currently, the ICRP has more than two hundred volunteers for thirty countries including some of the leading scientists and policy makers in the field of radiological protection. It is funded by contributions from organization interested in the work of the Commission.

          The structure of the Commission includes a Main Commission, a Scientific Secretariat, and five standing committees on effects, doses, medicine, applications and the environment.

          “ICRP is an independent, international organization that advances for the public benefit the science of radiological protection, in particular by providing recommendations and guidance on all aspects of protection against ionizing radiation. Since 1928, ICRP has developed, maintained, and elaborated the International System of Radiological Protection (ISRP) used world-wide as the common basis for radiological protection standards, legislation, guidelines, programs, and practice.

          The ISRP was developed based on the current scientific understanding of the biological effects of radiation exposure. In addition to the scientific aspects of the ISRP, the ICRP also takes into account ethical concerns, social expectations and knowledge gained in implementing the system.

           The ICRP regularly carries out consultation programs dealing with radiological exposure issues. Past projects included assessing radiation exposure and effects on astronauts, workers, cardiology patients and practitioners, patients being imaged, children being diagnosed and treated and people accidently exposed in radiotherapy. They also consulted on transfer of radionuclides from plants and animals, dangers of radon gas exposure, and potential problems with long term geological disposal of nuclear wastes.   

          The ICRP has published over a hundred documents on a wide range subjects concerning radiation protection including the reports generated by the consultation projects mentioned above. They also publish the documents that spell out their radiological protection system. They publish an annual report which is available online. Visitors to the website can download an extract from the 2007 Summary Recommendations, free posters for Pediatric radiology, free guides and explanatory notes, free education downloads and free educational CDs.

          In 2011 the ICRP held its First Symposium on the International System of Radiological Protection. The program and abstracts of the presented papers can be downloaded from the website. The Second Symposium will be held in 2013.

           After the Second World War, weapons research and work on civilian use of nuclear power were producing more and more radioactive materials. Scientists in the Manhattan Project had been assigned to work on what was then called “Health Physics.” A decade after the end of the war, the first conference on Health Physics was held at Ohio State University. One result of the conference was the formation of a professional Health Physics Society (HPS).

          Around 1960 with over a 1000 members, the Society formed “Sections” so each country with members in the HPS could have their own sub organization. In the mid 60s, a committee was formed within the HPS to work on the creation of a new international health physics association. Eventually, the committee was expanded to include 45 representatives from 25 countries. Articles of agreement were drafted, circulated and approved by the HPS. In 1965 the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA) was formally launched with fifteen of the country subgroups participating. Over 1000 members were part of the new organization.  Currently there are 48 member societies on 5 continents. 37 of these member organizations have their own websites.

         “The primary purpose of IRPA is to provide a medium whereby those engaged in radiation protection activities in all countries may communicate more readily with each other and through this process advance radiation protection in many parts of the world. This includes relevant aspects of such branches of knowledge as science, medicine, engineering, technology and law, to provide for the protection of man and his environment from the hazards caused by radiation, and thereby to facilitate the safe use of medical, scientific, and industrial radiological practices for the benefit of mankind.”

          The first IRPA Congress was held in 1966 and IRPA congresses have been every 4 years since then. The Congresses cover wide ranges of topics and virtually any paper dealing with aspects of radiation protection is welcome. The Congresses are held all over the world and regional congresses are also sponsored.

          The IRPA publishes the proceedings of their conferences on their website. They have a large library of other documents available online on a host of radiation related topics. Of special note is a set of documents about a “radiation protection culture.”  These documents deal with how to go about creating a framework of behaviour in an organization that supports radiation protection. They also archive documents for other international organizations.

            The IRPA has an education program that assists in training radiation protection professionals to qualify as “Radiation Protection Experts (RPE).” This profession is listed in the International Standard Classification of Occupations which catalogs the areas of expertise associated with this profession. The IRPA is currently developing a certification process for RPEs.

            The IRPA website lists 5 governmental radiation organizations, 4 NGOs concerned with radiation, and 4 professional organizations with which the IRPA has links. There is a page of links for radiation protection related websites.

            The IRPA website is an excellent source of information for anyone concerned with radiation protection, especially anyone working in a related field.