Uranium mining Cornwall. The first deliberate mining of radioactive ores took place in Jáchymov, a silver-mining city in the Czech Republic. Marie Curie used pitchblende ore from Jáchymov to isolate the element radium, a decay product of uranium. Until World War II uranium was mined primarily for its radium content; some carnotite deposits were mined primarily for the vanadium content. Sources for radium, contained in the uranium ore, were sought for use as luminous paint for watch dials and other instruments, as well as for health-related applications, some of which in retrospect were certainly harmful. The byproduct uranium was used mostly as
Naturally occurring radioactive material UK regulation is via the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales)Regulations 2010. This defines two types of NORM activity: (a)the production and use of thorium, or thorium compounds, and the production of products where thorium is deliberately added; or (b)the production and use of uranium or uranium compounds, and the production of products where uranium is deliberately added (a)the extraction, production and use of rare earth elements and rare earth element alloys; (b)the mining and processing of ores other than uranium ore; (c)the production of oil and gas; (d)the removal and management of radioactive scales and precipitates from equipment associated with