Nina's+Paper+as+Example

DRAFT: HOW MANY MISTAKES CAN YOU FIND?
Avatar at Midnite: A Contemporary Example of Cultural Disenfranchisement for Rocks Nina Thompson Nuclear Chemistry, Spring 2010

The Midnite Mine, a former Uranium mine on the Spokane Nation Reservation is an example of how the environmentalist plot of James Cameron's Billion Dollar sci fi movie Avatar is a current occuring event in the United States. Due to our citizens intimidation of any topic regarding nuclear science, the layers of environmental racism, and our inabillity to communicate with our fellow citizens without a corporate sponsor we are unable to mobilize each other to help end situations like the current undoing of the Spokane Indian Reservation. This example is one of many where corporate interests have moved people off their land literally mining for a rock, with a price, and destroyed people's homes. Avatar is a simplistic example of a one time event, the mining of home tree. The displacement of a people. The mining at Midnite Mine, and other Native American Reservations, involve years of toxic exposure through air, water, and soil is more complex. The complexity of the nuclear chemistry is not unlike the mixed plots, subplots, and somewhat unbeleivable aspects and messages of the movie. If you, dear reader, were able to sit through Avatar or even listen to the talk about it you will be able to understand the dangers of the chemistry at the Midnite Mine. // (Spokane Tribal Outreach Document, 2010 //)

Midnite Mine is a former Uranium mine on the Spokane Nation Native Indian Reservation. The mine was in operation between 1955 to 1982. It was an acid mine which has leaked heavy metals and high levels of radiation into waterways, air, and flora of the Spokane Indian Reservation. The above image is but one of a series of pits that make up the site. The site was operated between 1955 and 1982. When the price of Uranium dropped heavily they mine operators, Dawn Minding Corporation, a branch of the multi million dollar conglomerate, Newmont, abandoned the mine and exposed pits. The road by which the mine was accessed by the trucks is still highly radioactive and geiger counters whirr with readings. Local homes, driveways, and buildings built with the ore are also local hot beds of radioactive tracing. Acid pit mining not only makes the Uranium available, it also makes radioactive Radium, hard metals such as Arsenic, and other toxins. These toxins and radioactive materials were leached in to the local streams feeding Blue Ceek which runs into the Spokane River and then eventually to the Columbia. When tested fish in Blue lake had high levels of heavy metals. Roots of plants growing around the mine had radioactive levels as much as 11 times higher than anywhere else in the area. A high level of radioactivity in plants, soils, or water means that there are unstable elements, isotopes, that shoot out alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. The alpha radiation is particularly dangerous if ingested. Beta radiation can do some damage to tissues but is easier to block than gamma radiation. Either of these two types of radiation can cause tissue damage with long term exposure. Gamma radiation is pure energy shooting out of an element in a way that can disrupt cell growth and lead to tumors with a much more deterministic frequency (C.U.R.E., 2004). One way to relate to gamma radiation is how it is used in medical applications to radiate out tumors in the brain. Long term or high dose exposure can cause DNA damage, tissue damage which can lead to diseases such as leukemia, cancer, or emphysema. One of the best ways to understand how these radioactive particles work is to describe how they are detected. Radiation exists in microwaves, radio waves, cell phones and remote controls. That is not ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation projects actual particles which contain the ability to change the chemical make up of the things they hit. Most often they are measured by a Geiger Counter. A geiger counter usually includes an evacuated gas chamber not unlike a plasma ball commonly found at toy stores or science museums. At any point a charged particle such as an electron, beta particle, or whole helium atom is discharged by the nucleus of the isotopic form of an element. These gas chambers registers an electrical charge when the particles hit the gas chamber. Any substance that has a higher reading than background radiation is considered radioactive or "hot." The radiation is the frequency by which these particles are being released and picked up by the geiger counter. THey are often measured Curies, Ci. Those particles that make up radiation can disrupt the DNA or RNA molecules in your body. Those particles can hit the DNA of any living organism and mutate the DNA. The most common mutation is to stop a cell from being able to stop reproducing. These cells will grow unlimited by usual growth limits. These cells uncontrolably and form tumors. Some of these tumors can be benign, with continued exposure the tumors are usually malignant (i.e. cancerous). The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made from material sequestered from this mine. That being said the Uranium mined after the 60's was more often used in Nuclear Reactors meant to generate electricity for America's growing electricity market. See figure 2 below:

Figure 2:

//(What is Nuclear, 2010)//

The Tribal members didn't have this information. They noticed a large amount of their community dying of cancer or lung related illnesses. They took out a map and drew a red dot on any spot where someone they knew had cancer. The road where the plant trucks would drive the processed Uranium was clearly outlined in red. Many Spokane Native Americans discuss a feeling that the land is unsafe and it has been poisoned (Cornwall, 2008). Organizations from the University of Kansas and other sub groups of the EPA started working with the tribe and eveuntually after almost 20 years got the site proclaimed a superfund site. During those 20 years the dangerous radiation and heavy metals released by the processing was released into ground water, local water supplies, and local fauna and flora ( //(C.U.R.E., 2004)// These organizations of chemists and scientists who knew how to help the Native American Popluations work with the government to hold the companies available could be compared to the character Jake Sully as he knew how to disable the machines that were used to wrecking the land of the Na'vi people. In the ecofriendly plot of Avatar a private company is flying out soldiers and researchers to help maintain security while they dig up a rare mineral called unobtainium. The mineral promises to end the energy crisis back on Earth. Meanwhile the Na'vi people deeply resent the "sky people" (earthlings) and eventually through a guided romantic stream of interludes the Na'vi eventually join forces with Jake Sully a earthling who has become an avatar. A genetically manipulated embodiment of himself that looks like this other "race" this "Na'vi" which he can inhabits while he sleeps. Through this strained plot description I only hope to convey the similarities here. The Na'vi homes are sitting on a mineral, a rock, that promises to fix the energy crisis on Earth. The homeland tree, the habitat of a large number of these natives, is burnt down for the purpose of being able to mine out this unobtanium (Cameron, 2010). The story of the Native American Reservation is similar but not exactly the same. There was no immediate war. There were no planes or warriors to fight. There was only paperwork and letter writing to plead to get the site declared a superfund site so the company would have to start cleaning up the site.

The rock here on earth, a mineral commonly called Uranium Ore, when chemically treated with acids that produces, after much processing, Uranium. It went for less than 10$ a pound in 1990, now in 2010 going for 90$ a pound or more (Morgan and Raup, 2008). See Figure 2 below for more information.

Figure 3: //Morgan and Raup, 2008//

In the below figure 4 you can see the 4 steps in processing Uranium to a point where it can be taken to either a nuclear reactor or a weapons development center. A mill at the site also allowed for the proccessing to take place before the 100 mile drive to Hanford. Processing took many steps and involved harsh acids, crushing of rock which caused inhalation issues, and left dangerous material behind in every step. See figure 4 below to see the four products of each phase. Hanford is often sited as the birthplace of the United States most famous bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man. If the birth place is Hanford it is easy to dismiss the processing that had to take place to get the materials to Hanford. Hanford has been a superfund site and had billions of dollars payed out to clean up the contamination. The processing, mining, and transporting of the nuclear material that went to Hanford Nuclear Plant has been a priority clean up area with oversite committees and tons of oversite. The Midnite Mine, which supplied the material is left as open pits, was not declared a superfund site until 1999 and although preliminary containment has started the national conglomerate mining company, Newmont, is claiming no responsibility and that the cost should be payed by tax payers.

Figure 4 //Morgan and Raup, 2008//

In terms of the film world this would be similar to saying that in addition to mining we'll be contaminating all your rivers, lakes, groundwater with acids, heavy metals, and radioactive material. You will all have a slightly higher risk of getting cancer 1 in 5. The trout is contaminated, the ground water affects the growth of berries so no longer pick those, and most of you will die slowly. Not enough to rise the ire of the press or get a film crew in here. Avatar was a much more exhilierating experience with that. The burning and falling of hometree immediately displaced and killed hundreds of Na'vi. That is much easier to assess and relate to a cause. There is no medical way to prove that a cancer is from the high exposure from a mine. Despite the climactic endings and scenes in Avatar one still walks away with a feeling of wanting to appreciate the earth and not become so dependent on energy we are ruining foreign lands. President Obama came back from his summit calling upon the US to reinvest in it's Nuclear Power Program to help reduce green house emission. Dilemma is we don't know how to store the waste issue.

The mines and the associated mill put white and Indian Miners out of work. It is now estimated that 3/4 of residents are out of work (Cornwall, 2008) and that the mines employed many tribal members. That being said there are documented cases of the white miner's families who have become sick receiving some financial compensation. It is not yet documented that any Native American Families have received that relief. Though the Spokane Tribe is not a foreign species like the Na'vi, the Spokane Native Americans were certainly treated so and some would argue continued to be treated so. Sadly this record of human indeference to suffering is a classic theme. The movie Avatar extrapolated that to a sci-fi arena of a different planet. This theme is playing out on the Spokane reservation, the Navajo reservation, and other places across the country. We look at Avatar as a sad situation which we are all willing to pay money to see. Sadly we aren't willing to donate money or spend time advocating for the clean up of superfund sites across the country. Allowing ourselves to remain uninformed, intimidated by science, and entertained by mass media has stopped us from being global citizens or a nationa comunity that helps our fellow citizens. Avatar is a movie, Midnite Mines is a travesty that continues on the Spokane reservation. Which one is on the mind of the United States Citizen. How many senators have we written about the environmental damage done to disenfranchised people around our country.

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Cornwall, Warren. "Radioactive Remains: The forgotten story of the Northwest's only Uranium Mines". //http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004191779_pacificpuranium24.html//. (Accessed May 15th, 2009. 12:30 pm)======

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Tribal Community? Spokane Tribe Community Uranium, Radiation Education (C.U.R.E.) Project Training, Wellpinit, WA, Aug. 24, 2004. //http://www.engg.ksu.edu/CHSR/outreach/tosnac/sites/docs/SpokaneCaseAnalysis.pdf.// (Accessed May 5, 2010. 12:06 pm) ======