# Is Uranium ore dangerous?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 14, 2022, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775 "2022-01-14T11:14:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2022, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/1 "2022-01-14T11:14:02Z")
From college physics, Uranium only emits Alpha particles, which skin blocks easily. However if I recall, one of the produced daughter elements is Radon, which is pretty radioactive.
So, counter intuitively, is Uranium ore more dangerous than Uranium the element itself?
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/2 "2022-01-14T11:31:06Z")
Bumping, because I’m curious.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2022, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/3 "2022-01-14T12:11:34Z")
The ore itself, not so much. Uranium ores in general aren’t super-dangerous to be around (well, U itself is toxic besides the radioactivity, so don’t eat it).
The places where the ore occurs, especially underground, where radon gas can accumulate, are much more so. One of my jobs as a gold mine geologist was doing occasional gas testing. Some reefs in South African gold mines have enough uranium to [count as an ore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_ore#Witwatersrand_sub-type).
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2022, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/4 "2022-01-14T12:18:34Z")
The Canadian Nuclear Safety commission is conducting a major study on uranium miners’ health. It does seem that radon is the major issue:
> [@](#):
>
> One of the reasons for this is that radon, a decay product of uranium, is a risk factor for lung cancer. We typically see an increased risk of lung cancer with prolonged exposure to radon in both residential and occupational studies. Even though radiation exposures have decreased drastically in modern uranium facilities, there is a need for more research on the relationship between regular, low radon exposure and long-term worker health.
>
> Past studies found that overall; uranium workers were as healthy as other Canadians. Lung cancer was an important exception where uranium miners had higher mortality rates than the general male population.
> **[Canadian Uranium Workers Study - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission](https://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/research/canadian-uranium-worker-study/index.cfm)**
>
> The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is an independent federal government agency that regulates the use of nuclear energy and material to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada&rsquo:s international...
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### Author:  [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2022, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/5 "2022-01-14T12:56:47Z")
There was a phenomenon in one area of Africa where a large natural uranium ore deposit was sufficiently large and concentrated that it became a moderately low level nuclear reactor, creating more radioactive minerals…
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2022, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/6 "2022-01-14T15:06:57Z")
The Oklo mine.
> **[Oklo Mine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklo_Mine)**
>
> Oklo Mine (sometimes Oklo Reactor or Oklo Mines), located in Oklo, Gabon on the west coast of Central Africa, is believed to be the only natural nuclear fission reactor. Oklo consists of 16 sites at which self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions are thought to have taken place approximately 1.7 billion years ago, and ran for hundreds of thousands of years. It is estimated to have averaged under 100 kW of thermal power during that time.
> In May 1972 at the Tricastin uranium enrichment site at P...
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### Author:  [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2022, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/7 "2022-01-15T09:48:50Z")
Radon is a gas and so can be inhaled and therefore the radioactivity is delivered inside the body, so more dangerous. Uranium ore emits Alpha particle that are stopped by clothes or even a piece of paper (but contaminating them) and therefore is easily protected against (provided you don’t lick or eat the thing…)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/8 "2022-01-15T14:38:46Z")
Don’t forget that solids can be inhaled, too, if they’re a fine dust. A lump of uranium ore might be safe, but not so much if it’s smashed with a hammer, or ground down with mining tools.
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### Author:  [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-uranium-ore-dangerous/957775/9 "2022-01-15T15:56:19Z")
Alpha particles are easily stopped by skin and clothing or even just the air, so outside your body, alpha emitters, and beta emitters , are relatively benign, but the problem comes if they get into your body, then all that energy is absorbed by your body.
The unit of radiation absorption is the Gray which is joules/kg of energy deposited in a body. There is the unit of biological damage or equivalent dose which is the Seivert, which is sort of normalized measurement of how bad it will be for you. To get from absorbed dose to equivalent dose you have multiply by the quality factor, which depends on the type of radiation. For gamma rays the quality factor is one, for neutrons it is about 4 ( depends on the energy range) for alpha particles it is 20.
So with radiation if you are dealing with spicy gamma ray or neutron sources , hopefully outside your body, it is all about time/distance/shielding to protect yourself , those funky looking hazmat suits don’t do anything.
When dealing with alpaha and beta emitters, it’s all about contamination,( ok you dont want gamma emitters spread around either) and keeping the stuff outside your body, hence the suits, showers, and most importantly , breathing protection. If it is particulates then good filters, if it is radon gas, then you would need self contained breathing.
But back to quality factor , if you do breath alpha emitters in , one joule per kg of absorbed dose is about 20x worse than one j per kg of gamma ray absorbed dose, but it is best to avoid either.
So a big drum or uranium ore is not going to present a hazard , but the dust in the mine will
As has been pointed out above ,uranium as a heavy metal isnt exactly a great thing to have in the body either, and any sort of dust in the lungs is also a bad idea, either through abrasion or clogging.
Also there is a practical view of the question. Maybe the uranium itself is not hazardous, but as its decay products will all be present as well , barring differences in solubility/mobility, they also have to be considered as well so yes uranium ore can be hazardous.
> **[Uranium Gamma Spectrometry - PhysicsOpenLab](https://physicsopenlab.org/2016/01/29/uranium-gamma-spectrometry/)**
>
> Uranium is a chemical element with symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-white metal in the
A page here shows some of the gamma ray emmison spectrums that go with the alpha /beta decay or uranium ores. Generally they are low energy gamma rays and so fairly easily stopped by clothing or the air, but as per alpha particles, if its inside you, all that energy gets absorbed by your body.
One final note, if you look at the decay chains they may only show alpha or beta emissions, as that is how you move from one element to another , however there are often gamma ray emmison that accompany the alpha beta emmisons as the nucleus loses energy to get settled into a less energetic state that may not be indicated on the decay chain. A pure gamma ray emmison from a nucleus wont change the element and are generally the nucleus moving from a meta stable state to a lower energy state. And as always , as we are dealing with mother nature, there is probably an exception to all of that somewhere.