URANIUM ATLAS

Uranium has been extracted from the earth since the 1930s. It has left a lethal trail of radioactive contamination and radioactive waste.

The uranium extraction process alone costs human lives. Uranium mining also causes serious health effects for all those exposed.

Until the 1970s, military demand was used to justify uranium mining. It had negative health impacts from the start, on local populations, but especially on Indigenous societies.

For many decades, South Africa was the main uranium supplier on the African continent. Today, Namibia and Niger have taken its place.

The subarctic peoples, on whose territories the mines are located, were never informed about the hazards and risks involved. The consequences of mining continue to pose a severe threat to their health.

The story of the Atomic Age began on the homeland of the Indigenous people of North America. From uranium mining to atomic bomb tests to the perpetual search for radioactive waste storage sites, the primary target remains native lands.

Das Land der indigenen Völker war von Anbeginn im Fokus der Nuklearindustrie. Nur so wurden Kanada und die USA die historisch größten Uranproduzenten

The first peoples of the continent considered themselves the guardians of the treasures beneath the Earth’s surface. Their descendants continue to speak truth to power when taking on uranium companies.

At the start of 2020, there were still 124 nuclear power plants in operation in the EU, making it the world’s largest consumer of uranium.

The price of uranium has been languishing at rock bottom for years, and with it the entire industry. At the same time, opposition to the environmentally destructive practice of uranium mining has been growing steadily.

The ten largest mining corporations are responsible for 87 percent of worldwide uranium production. They dominate the market and exploit Indigenous peoples.

Uranium mining leaves behind radioactive and toxic waste with decay products that are even more hazardous than the mined uranium. However, there is virtually no management of these abandoned mines.

Nuclear meltdowns and ruptured dams, reactor fires and explosions: disasters that should never have happened.

The World Health Organization is guided by the IAEA on all health matters relating to nuclear issues. And under the EURATOM treaty, the European Union is obligated to promote nuclear energy.

A nuclear war would have no victors. Nevertheless, the nuclear-weapon states are modernizing their arsenals and developing “small nuclear weapons”.

The first nuclear bomb was detonated on July 16th, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. A devastating 2,057 additional tests followed, the most recent one by North Korea in 2017.

Uranium-238, a waste product of uranium enrichment, has been diverted into tank-piercing projectiles. Depleted uranium, known as DU, has an extremely high penetrating force – and fatal consequences.

Between 1946 and 1993, several countries – most notably the UK and the Soviet Union – dumped their nuclear waste into the sea. This even included high-level radioactive waste, before a ban in 1975.

Worldwide, there is only one final high-level nuclear waste repository under construction – in Onkalo, Finland. Meanwhile, more than 350,000 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste has already been generated globally.

For decades, the nuclear industry boasted of a “nuclear renaissance”. But the reality turned out to be very different: losses running into the billions, delays, and competition from renewable energy sources.

The nuclear industry is scrambling to deliver a so-called fourth generation reactor while using the crisis of climate change as an excuse to expand nuclear power. However, there are faster, cheaper and less dangerous options.