Uranium ore for silver in the 16th century. F.E. Brückmann made the first mineralogical description of the mineral in 1727 and the vein deposit Jachymov in the Czech Republic became the type locality for uraninite. In 1789 the German chemist M. H. Klaproth discovered the element of uranium in a sample of pitchblende from the Johanngeorgenstadt vein deposit. The first industrial production of uranium was made from the Jachymov deposit and Marie and Pierre Curie used the tailings of the mine for their discovery of polonium and radium. Vein deposits consist of uranium minerals filling in cavities such as cracks, veins, fractures,
Uranium tailings stored aboveground and allowed to dry out, the radioactive sand can be carried great distances by the wind, entering the food chain and bodies of water. The danger posed by such sand dispersal is uncertain at best given the dilution effect of dispersal. The majority of tailing mass will be inert rock, just as it was in the raw ore before the extraction of the uranium, but physically altered, ground up, mixed with large amounts of water and exposed to atmospheric oxygen, which can substantially alter chemical behaviour. Uranium tailings contain over a dozen radioactive nuclides, which are the primary