The Navajo and the Atomic Age
By Ben Ford
Salem State University, Department of History
Salem, Massachusetts
March 2015
THE NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE
The
nuclear power industry has a favorable view of the future. Since the late
1990s, the United States has recommitted itself to the promotion of commercial
nuclear power. Tax credits and loan guarantees are helping spur the
construction of additional facilities. The industry can also point to polls
that show Americans have a generally favorable view of nuclear power, even people
living in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. Because nuclear fission does
not produce carbon emissions, even many environmentalists have a favorable view
of nuclear power.[1]
The
first step in the conversion of nuclear energy into electricity is the mining
of uranium. Yet, favorable assessments of the environmental impact and safety
record of nuclear power frequently neglect the devastating impact that uranium mining
has had on the communities that have mined it. In order to reach informed
conclusions about the environmental and safety record of the nuclear industry,
we need to understand the impact it has had on these communities. One such
community was that of Navajo Nation, on and around whose territory uranium was
extensively mined in the second half of the twentieth century.
THE ATOMIC AGE ARRIVES
In
October 1939, a letter from the most famous scientist in history arrived at the
White House. It warned of “extremely powerful bombs of a new type.” Recent
developments in the field of nuclear physics had made it theoretically “possible
to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast
amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be
generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the
immediate future,” the letter read. “A single bomb of this type,” the letter
warned, “carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the
whole port together with some of the surrounding territory.”[2]
The letter was signed by Albert Einstein and precipitated the Manhattan Project
in January 1942.
In the
aftermath of the war, the quest began to transform nuclear fission into a
viable source of electricity production. In his famous “Atoms for Peace” speech
at the United Nations on December 8, 1953, President Eisenhower proposed an
Atomic Energy Agency whose experts would facilitate the application of “atomic
energy to the needs of agriculture, medicine, and other peaceful activities. A
special purpose would be to provide abundant electrical energy to the
power-starved areas of the world.” “The United States,” he declared, “knows
that if the fearful trend of atomic military build-up can be reversed, this
greatest of destructive forces can be developed into a great boon, for the
benefit of mankind.”[3]
The Manhattan
Project signaled the arrival of the Atomic Age. Since the first detonation of a
nuclear device in July 1945 there have been over two thousand detonations of
nuclear devices. There are more than 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world today.[4]
They are divided between 9 countries: The United States, Russia, England,
France, Israel, India, Pakistan, China, and North Korea. There are also more
than 430 commercial nuclear power reactors in the world, producing about 12% of
the world’s electricity. 70 addition commercial nuclear reactors are planned.[5]
The
development nuclear technology had profound political, economic, and social
consequences for the history of the twentieth century. Nuclear weapons
transformed military planning. Peace was precariously grounded in the capacity
of the world's superpowers to rapidly annihilate one another. Governments
channeled their societies' resources into the quest for power too cheap to
meter. The peace sign was born—as an anti-nuclear-weapons symbol. Radiation,
meltdowns, and post-apocalyptic (post-nuclear-war) settings became mainstays of
popular entertainment.
Nuclear
technology created new places, new professions, and new identities. Cutting
edge laboratories materialized in deserts. Universities developed programs to
train nuclear engineers to manage and maintain an expanding nuclear arsenal and
an expanding commercial nuclear power sector. And from Australia to Nevada,
from Congo to Kazakhstan, thousands mined that most fissionable of the
naturally-occurring elements that made all of this technology possible:
uranium.
While
many excellent histories have been written about the Atomic Age, until
recently, surprisingly few have documented the impact of nuclear technology on
those who mined the uranium. Yet, that impact has been profound. One community
especially impacted by the mining of uranium was Navajo Nation.
THE ADVENT OF AMERICAN URANIUM MINING
Most of the
uranium for the bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki came from Belgian
Congo, South Africa, and Canada.[6]
Some uranium was provided by domestic sources, however.[7]
After the war, the United States quickly moved to develop these domestic
sources of uranium.
Uranium
had been mined on the Colorado Plateau since as early as 1871.[8]
Uranium was known of and had been used for hundreds of years to tint glass.[9]
However, uranium-containing ore also contains other elements. Until the
Manhattan Project, it was in pursuit of these other elements that
uranium-containing ore was mined. For instance, carnotite is a mineral that
contains both uranium and vanadium. Carnotite was mined to access its vanadium,
which was used to harden steel. Additionally, any ore containing uranium
contains the elements into which uranium gradually decays, and this includes
radium. The discovery of this element by Marie Curie in 1901 catalyzed a radium
craze. World War I created a high demand for vanadium to harden steel and
radium for use in glow-in-the-dark paint. Until the Manhattan Project, uranium
was little more than a waste product of radium and vanadium refinement.
After
the Second World War, the Atomic Energy Commission was established to oversee
the development of the U.S.’s uranium resources for commercial nuclear power as
well as the nuclear arsenal and other military applications. The AEC would be
the sole legal purchaser of American uranium until the 1970s, and it oversaw
the exploration and exploitation of America’s uranium resources. The
consequences were dramatic. Entire towns emerged that were dedicated to the
mining and refining of uranium, such as Uravan, Colorado, and Jeffrey City,
Wyoming. “It was the first and only mineral rush triggered by the U.S.
government,” writes Raye Ringholz.[10]
“Quickly,” wrote Robert Nininger, an AEC official, “the idea spread that almost
anyone had a chance to get rich quick by finding uranium, literally in his own
backyard.”[11]
From the
1980s onward, domestic uranium production has been minimal. Among the
contributing factors were the exhaustion of the easiest-to-reach domestic sources,
enhanced public awareness of environmental impacts, and diminished demand for
uranium.[12]
By 2010, US domestic uranium production supplied merely 10% of the nation’s
nuclear fuel demand.[13]
THE NAVAJO
There are
300,000 Navajo.[14]
Most live in the territory of Navajo Nation, located in the Four Corners region
of the Southwest. Navajo Nation is the largest Indian nation in the world.
Their territory comprises 16 million acres, or 25,000 square miles. It is
located primarily in Arizona but also extends into Utah and New Mexico. Navajo
Nation is larger than Ireland and about one-fifth the size of Japan.[15]
Like all
Native American tribes, the Navajo have had a disastrous relationship with the
United States. Between 1863 and 1865, they were forcibly relocated from the
Four Corners area and confined to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. The conditions
were harsh, but on June 1, 1868, the Navajo signed a treaty with the United
States which permitted them to return to their territory in the Four Corners
area. June 1st is Treaty Day among the Navajo and commemorates their
return to their land.
On the
other hand, the Navajo were loyal supporters of the U.S. war effort against the
Axis powers. The Navajo joined the American military in larger proportions than
other Americans.[16]
Famously, the Navajo language provided the basis of a code used by the military
and never broken by the Axis Powers.
Uranium-bearing
ores were being mined on Navajo land before the Manhattan Project. This was to
meet the demand for radium and vanadium. In 1944, the Navajo received their
first payment for uranium mined on their land.[17]
By 1953, nearly 800 mines were producing uranium on the Colorado Plateau, and
157 of them employed 750 or more miners.[18]
It is estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 Navajo were employed in uranium
mining.[19]
Many Navajo were grateful to find employment on or near the reservation.
Previously, employment in agriculture or railroad construction had frequently
required that Navajo travel great distances.[20]
The world’s largest underground uranium mine would be located in Navajo Nation
by Mount Taylor. By 1988, 13 million tons of uranium ore had been mined on
Navajo land.[21]
The four centers of uranium mining and milling on Navajo land were Shiprock,
New Mexico; Monument Valley, Utah; Church Rock, New Mexico; and Kayenta,
Arizona.[22]
URANIUM MINING, RADON, AND CANCER
Uranium is, of
course, radioactive. Radioactive elements decay into less heavy elements. Those
decay products continue to decay into additional decay products until finally
decaying into a stable isotope of an element. It is in this process of
radioactive decay into less heavy elements that radioactive elements release
energy. Radioactive decay is nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is a nuclear
reaction, and nuclear reactions are far more powerful than chemical reactions,
which involve only the exchange of electrons between elements.
Uranium has
several isotopes, all of which are radioactive. The most common isotope is
U-238. The primary decay chain of U-238 is as follows: uranium 238; thorium
238; protactinium 234; uranium 234; thorium 230; radium 226; radon 222;
polonium 218; lead 214; bismuth 214; polonium 214; lead 210; bismuth 210;
polonium 210; lead 206. The decay chain ends at lead 206 because lead 206
(Pb-206) is a stable isotope of lead.[23]
Uranium miners
are surrounded by uranium isotopes and their decay products, which vary in both
the speed at which they decay and their threat to human health. Of particular
concern in regard to uranium mining is radon. Radon is particularly dangerous
because it can be inhaled and become embedded in the lungs. Eventually, radon
decays into isotopes of polonium, lead, and bismuth. These decay products of
radon are known as radon daughters, and when they decay, they release energy in
the miner’s lungs. Eventually, this can cause cancer.
THE RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT
By the 1960s,
the health effects of uranium mining were being felt by the Navajo. Miners and
former miners began to experience chest pain and other symptoms. Chest X-rays
revealed that they had lung cancer. It is estimated that more than 1,000 United
States uranium miners have died of lung cancer, mostly caused by occupational
exposure to radon gas. At least 63 of those who died before 1993 were Navajo.[24]
The
1,000 abandoned uranium mines on Navajo land pose additional health risks. This
includes contaminated drinking water and radioactive dust.[25]
Many Navajo homes and schools are contaminated with radioactive materials.[26]
The Navajo
struggle to have their health impacts addressed was long and frustrating. That
struggle began with the efforts of impacted Navajo. “As with many social
problems, especially in the environmental area, it is grass-roots social action
that brings the issue to public awareness,” note Dawson, Charley, and Harrison.[27]
Essential to the successes of the campaign, however, was collaboration with
health professionals, legislators, and others. In particular, Stewart L. Udall,
who had served as secretary of the interior during the Kennedy administration, filed
two lawsuits on behalf of Navajo uranium miners in 1979. Though unsuccessful,
these lawsuits helped draw attention to the plight of Navajo uranium miners.
This campaign culminated
in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990. This law provided
“compassion” payments not only to Navajo who met certain criteria, but also to
those affected by radiation at the Nevada Test Site that had served as a
testing ground for nuclear weapons. The law was amended in 2000 to reduce what
came to be regarded as unrealistic criteria for determining who qualified for
compensation.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT KNEW
In the
process of their struggle to address the impacts of nuclear technology on
Navajo society, the Navajo learned that the government had long been aware of
the link between uranium mining and lung cancer. As mentioned above, uranium
had been known of for centuries. It was mined in Schneeberg, Germany and
Jachimov, Czechoslovakia. The first detailed report on the association between
uranium mining and lung cancer was written in 1879, and by 1932, lung cancer
had been designated an occupational disease for which one was eligible for
workers’ compensation in Germany and Czechoslovakia.[28]
In the 1950s, the United States Public Health Service conducted a study that
further confirmed the association between lung cancer and the exposure to radon
gas that occurs in the process of uranium mining. National radon exposure
standards were finally set in 1969.[29]
Navajo
poverty and levels of education left them particularly vulnerable to
exploitation. Often paid less than the minimum wage, this was the first
encounter with a wage economy for many, and they were grateful for receiving
employment.[30] Few
Navajo spoke English at mid-century and few had significant formal education.
As Brugge and Goble write, “the Navajo population was isolated from the general
flow of knowledge about radiation and its hazards by geography, language, and
literacy levels.” Indeed, at the dawn of
the Atomic Age, there was no word for radiation in the Navajo language.[31]
CONCLUSION
The
experience of the Navajo with uranium mining illustrates the potentially
devastating impact of nuclear technology among the most vulnerable members of
society. As the United States renews its commitment to nuclear technology,
attention must be paid not only to the safety conditions and environmental
impact of electricity production facilities, but to the sites at which the
uranium that makes that technology possible is mined.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Amundson, Michael A. Yellowcake
Towns: Uranium Mining Communities in the American West. Boulder, Colorado:
University of Colorado Press, 2002.
Brugge, Doug, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis (eds.). The Navajo People and Uranium Mining.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 2006.
Eichstaedt, Peter H. If You Poison
Us: Uranium and Native Americans. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Red Crane Books,
1994.
Nininger, Robert. Minerals for Atomic Energy: A Guide to
Exploration for Uranium, Thorium, and Beryllium. New York: D. Van Nostrand
Company, Inc., 1954.
Ringholz, Raye C. Uranium Frenzy: Saga of the Nuclear West.
Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2002.
ARTICLES
Diep, Francie.
“Abandoned Uranium Mines: An ‘Overwhelming Problem’ in the Navajo Nation.” Scientific American, December 30, 2010.
Accessed March 6, 2015, 1:08 PM: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/abandoned-uranium-mines-a/.
Donovan, Bill.
“Census: Navajo Enrollment tops 300,000.” Navajo
Times E-Edition, July 7, 2011. Accessed February 23, 2015, 5:21PM, http://navajotimes.com/news/2011/0711/070711census.php#.VOunafnF_qU.
REPORTS
U.S.
Energy Information Administration. “U.S. Uranium Reserves Estimates,” 2010.
Available online: http://www.eia.gov/uranium/reserves/ures.pdf.
National
Resource Defense Council. “Nuclear Fuel’s Dirty Beginnings: Environmental
Damage and Public Health Risks from Uranium Mining in the American West,” March
2012. Available online: http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/files/uranium-mining-report.pdf.
[1] The World Nuclear
Association webpage on US nuclear power policy, accessed March 6, 2015, 10:27
AM: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-T-Z/USA--Nuclear-Power-Policy/.
[2] Einstein’s letter
is available online in several locations, including through the website of the
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/pdfs/docsworldwar.pdf.
[3] President
Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech is available online through the website
of the Voice of Democracy Project: http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/eisenhower-atoms-for-peace-speech-text/.
[4] Federation of
American Scientists webpage, accessed March 5, 2015, 12:06PM: http://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/.
Also, ICANW webpage, accessed March 5, 2015, 11:07 AM: http://www.icanw.org/the-facts/nuclear-arsenals/. The
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs webpage states that there are
22,000 nuclear weapons in the world: http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Nuclear/,
accessed March 5, 2015, 12:09 AM.
[5] Nuclear Energy
Institute webpage, accessed March 5, 2015 12:02 PM: http://www.nei.org/Knowledge-Center/Nuclear-Statistics/World-Statistics.
[6] Peter H.
Eichstaedt, If You Poison Us: Uranium and
Native Americans (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Red Crane Books, 1994), 32.
[7] Michael A.
Amundson, Yellowcake Towns: Uranium
Mining Communities in the American West (Boulder: University of Colorado
Press, 2002), 149. According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation website,
accessed March 5, 2015, at 12:43 PM, 14% of the uranium acquired by the
Manhattan Project was produced domestically at Grand Junction, Colorado: http://www.atomicheritage.org/location/grand-junction-co.
[8] Eichstaedt, 9.
[9] “Radioactive
Antiques,” US Environmental Protection Agency webpage, accessed March 2, 2015,
10:05 AM: http://www3.epa.gov/radtown/antiques.html.
[10] Raye C. Ringholz, Uranium Frenzy: Saga of the Nuclear West
(Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2002), ix.
[11] Robert D.
Nininger, Minerals for Atomic Energy: A
Guide to Exploration for Uranium, Thorium, and Beryllium (New York: D. Van
Nostrand Company, Inc., 1954), v. Accessed through archive.org: https://archive.org/stream/mineralsforatomi00ninirich#page/n5/mode/2up.
[12] Amundson, 151-2.
[13] U.S. Energy
Information Administration report “U.S. Uranium Reserves Estimates,” 2010: http://www.eia.gov/uranium/reserves/ures.pdf.
[14] Bill Donovan,
“Census: Navajo enrollment tops 300,000,” Navajo
Times E-Edition, July 7, 2011. Accessed February 23, 2015, 5:21PM, http://navajotimes.com/news/2011/0711/070711census.php#.VOunafnF_qU.
[15] Esther
Yazzie-Lewis and Jim Zion, “Leetso,
the Powerful Yellow Monster: A Navajo Cultural Interpretation of Uranium
Mining,” in Brugge, Benally, and Yazzie-Lewis (eds.), 1.
[16] Esther
Yazzie-Lewis and Jim Zion, “Leetso,
the Powerful Yellow Monster: A Navajo Cultural Interpretation of Uranium
Mining,” in Doug Brugge, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis, The Navajo People and Uranium Mining
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006), 2.
[17] Eichstaedt, 33-4.
[18] Ibid., 67.
[19] National Resource
Defense Council report “Nuclear Fuel’s Dirty Beginnings: Environmental Damage
and Public Health Risks from Uranium Mining in the American West,” page 18.
Report available online: http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/files/uranium-mining-report.pdf.
[20] Brugge, Benally,
and Yazzie-Lewis, xvi-xvii; Yazzie-Lewis and Jim Zion, 3.
[21] Ibid., 3.
[22] Doug Brugge and
Rob Goble, “A Documentary History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People,” 27,
in Brugge, Benally, Yazzie-Lewis (eds.).
[23] Canadian Coalition
for Nuclear Responsibility website. Accessed March 5, 2015, 1:06 PM: http://www.ccnr.org/decay_U238.html.
The Oxford University Department of Chemistry provides a helpful illustration
of this decay chain: http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/Conservation/page31.htm,
accessed March 5, 2015, 1:10 PM.
[24] Doug Brugge and
Rob Goble, “A Documentary History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People,” in
Brugge, Benally, and Yazzie-Lewis (eds.), 42-2.
[25] Francie Diep,
“Abandoned Uranium Mines: An ‘Overwhelming Problem’ in the Navajo Nation,” Scientific America, December 30, 2010.
Accessed March 6, 2015, 1:08 PM: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/abandoned-uranium-mines-a/.
[26] Yazzie-Lewis and
Zion, 4, in Brugge, Benally, and Yazzie-Lewis (eds.).
[27] Susan E. Dawson,
Perry H. Charley, and Phillip Harrison Jr., “Advocacy and Social Action Among
Navajo People: Uranium Workers and Their Families, 1988-1995,” in Brugge,
Benally, and Yazzie-Lewis (eds.), 71.
[28] Brugge and Goble,
in Brugge, Benally, and Yazzie-Lewis (eds.), 27.
[29] Ibid., 35, 38.
[30] Ibid., 28-29.
[31] Ibid., 30.
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