RJA #15

During this last semister I have learned many useful ways of conducting research. Many of these I will be able to use throughout my college carreer and hopefully for the rest of my professional carrer. Things that i found the most useful were the meta search sites. These make having to find info much faster. All in all this class will remain very usefull to me.

RJA #14A

My progress on the application project is a little slow. Although I have almost 1000 words, I am not to happy with what Ihave done. I am not sure if it is in the correct format for a news article. The things that I am happy with is that I am writting more then one article for the same edition of the paper. This way I am able to cover more then just one topc. I will be done with the paper before the due date, but I am not to sure if I will be happy with my end product.

RJA #13C

http://www.citizensoutcry.org/images/lettertopres.jpg

This link is to a site that has a letter to the President regarding drunk driving. Although I wanted to do a news article, I think this will be a better idea for the application project. So I am now planning on writing a letter from someone in Uravan sent to the President in regards to the closing of the town. If i cannot write enough about that topic I might write a letter that covers how a family is not covered by the 1990 RECA.

RJA# 13B

For my application project I am planning on writing a news article. This article will be based on removing residents of Uravan, Colorado after it was found to be radioactive. I think I will try to write it from one of the residents point of view, showing their outrage at the fact that their health was endangered and no one realized it before.

RJA#12A

Amundson, Micheal A. Yellowcake Town. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2004. Print
This book deals with all uranium mining towns on the Colorado plateau. This source was one of the sources that I used during my research. It covered the town of Uravan better then any other sources that I found.
Brugge, Doug, Timothy Benally, and Esther Yazzie-Lewis, eds. The Navajo People and Uranium Mining. New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 2004. Print
This is the second most used source in my paper. It mainly focused on what happened during the mining on Navajo lands. It also covered legislation passed by the U.S. to give health benifits to miners, and amedments to that bill.
Chernobyl: 20 Years Later. 13 Apr. 2007. Web. 1 Apr. 2010. .
This source I really didn't use to much. It had information regarding steps being taken in Chernobyl to fix containment issues. It was helpful as supporting evidence for my arguement.

RJA#13A

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1935259/Uranium_Mining_on_the_Colorado_plateau

RJA #12B

For my field reasearch I drove to the old site of Uravan, Colorado. The site was a area that looked fairly normal. There were only two buildings still there but much of the area looks a lot like what I think it looked like before the mining operations. There are signs that warn you not to enter the area, but other then that it looks like the rest of the area.

RJA #11

Navajo Challenge Uranium Mining Permit On Tribal Lands. 9 Apr. 2008. Environment News Service. 12 Mar. 2010 http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-19-02.asp

Radon and Radioactivity- Facts and Controversies. 13 Apr. 2010. Radon Seal. 5 Mar. 2010 http://www.radonseal.com/radon-facts.htm

United States of America. United States of America. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). What is a Superfund site? Apr.2007. 5 Apr. 2010 http://epa.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/epa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=172&p_created=1065036363

Uravan, Colorado. 15 Dec. 2007. 92Ura 23Van. 22 Feb 2010 http://www.uravan.com/index.htm

Williams, David O. Uranium surge prompts Colorado lawmakers to call for stiff cleanup regulations. 19 Mar. 2010. The Colorado Independent. 3 Apr. 2010

RJA#10A

Since the 15th century man has been mining uranium even if it isn't on purpose. Starting in the town of ST. Joachimshal all the way to the Colorado plateau. Since then man has had a diffacult time understanding the exact effects of this very dangerous mineral. Called by German miners '"pechblende"' meaning the bad luck rock. (Zoellner 16-18)
During the 1950's the Colorado plateau was a strange place. With many people searching the hills carrying geiger counters and towns started to mine for uranium. From brand new town's like Uravan, Colorado to exsiting towns like Moab, Utah, the landscape was changing. None of these changes have been for the good. (Amundson 19-30)
Should you be afraid of uranium? No not at all, this mineral is a part of everyone's daily lives. From the water we drink to the food we eat it is always present. Most people in the '40s and '50s believed that this was a very rare material, but in fact it is one of the most common minerals. It is only real toxic in greater quanities, for example, in areas where there is a active uranium mining operation. (What is uranium)

RJA#10 C

For my application project I have been thinking about doing somthing in the way of a journal. Other idea's include writing letters between a miner and a family member based on conditions, or a short story "a day in the life", or maybe a news article relating to the steps the government took to dispose of the town of Uravan and how it isn't enough.

RJA#10b

1. What I have completed:

• I have most of my rough draft done.
• I am almost completed with the source list

2. What I need to do still:

• I Still need to proof read the draft.
• I need to add a little more content.
• Also I need to rewrite my thesis statement. Due to mistakes pointed out to me.

During the next three days I plan on fininshing the paper and works sited lists. That will give me a few days to proof read the paper and double check my works sited list.

RJA #9C

For my presentation I will start by talking about the history of uranium. I believe that the history even before the U.S. started to mine for uranium is very important to understand how we have advanced our knowledge of uranium. Also, there is a lot of interesting information that everyone should know about this mineral. After that I plan on talking about the damaging effects of extracting this mineral from the earth.

RJA 9B

Thesis: Due to the damaging effects of uranium mining, the United States of America, must implament tougher restrictions on placing a claim and on the mining operations.
Arguments: 1. The enviromental effects are far to damaging of uranium mining
2. The health of the workers is far to costly for money earned.
3. The effect on families is extremely straining.
4. The effects on local communities are extremely davastating.
Counters: 1. Mining companies are taking better steps to mitigate damage to enviroment.
2. The government has settled to pay for health care of affected workers.
3. The families and workers are aware of what they are getting into
4. The revenue brought in to the local communities pay for far more then what damage is created.

RJA # 9A

Due to the damaging effects of uranium mining, the United States of America, must implement tougher restriction on placing a claim and on mining operations.
Question: Are the effects of uranium mining to damaging to the Colorado platuea.

RJA #8B

First, I looked at Luc page at http://lucarnaudsresearchjournal.blogspot.com/2010/03/eng-1020-rja-7a.html#comments and found that these were good assesments.
Next, I looked at Pranai's page and didnt get the URL. On the post for both they have to be approved first. In case they do not get posted, Luc had good sources and discussed the credibility of each. I believe that he has some good sources. For Pranai's sources there is just a post on what each source has not if they are credible or not.

RJA #8 Summary

"Although uranium is radioactive, it is not particularly rare. It is widely spread throughout the environment and so it is impossible to avoid uranium. Uranium can be found naturally in the environment in very small amounts in rocks, soil, air and water. Humans add uranium metals and compounds, because they are released during mining and milling processes."
http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/u.htm
According to Lenntech.com ". . . uranium is radioactive, it is not particularly rare [ non enriched form]." They continue to talk about the many sources that uranium is introduced into the human body such as food, air, and water. The small amouts in each of these sources are nowhere near the amount at which uranium becomes toxic. It isn't until the uranium is enriched that small quanitites becomes highly dangorus to humans. In mining and milling the amount a human is exsposed to becomes greater and so does the riskes involved.(www.lenntech.com)

Uranium is found throughout the world. It is not at all a rare mineral. This makes uranium exsposure a daily occurrence in everyones daily lives. This mineral is found everywhere from air, to the soil, to the water that we drink.(www.lenntech.com)

Most people don't think about uranium exsposure as somthing that happens in their lives. With the amount of uranium in our enviroment makes this a daily occurrence. Even though this material is radioactive by nature, there isn't anything to fear. The introduction of uranium into the human body come form the air, soil, and water all around us.(www.lenntech.com)

RJA #6C

The three field research options that I have brainstormed are as follows:
1. Observe the area of Uravan, Colorado
2. Send a Email questionaire to a representitive at the Colorado reclimation and saftey orginization
3. Send a Email questionaire to a representitive at one of the Uranium mining companies located here in Colorado.

RJA #5

Resource searched or tool used: Blog pulse
Keywords used: Uranium and Colorado plataeu
Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): Bolean, AND, ""
Date of search: 7 March 2010
Number of hits: 14
Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): The relevance on this site was really good. Most of the hits were for new mining operations. I would give this site a 5.


Resource searched or tool used: Icerocket
Keywords used: Uranuim and Colorado plateau
Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): bolean, AND, ""
Date of search: 7 March 2010
Number of hits: 21
Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): Most of the hits were older then 30 days and had ok relevance with my topic. I would rate this at a 4.

RJA #6a

Resource searched or tool used: Bing Search engine
Keywords used: Uranium Mining and Colorado Plateau
Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): Used bolean with operator: and
Date of search 8 March 2010
Number of hits: 62,600
Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): The first few hits were a number 5, As the list goes on the relevance drops.

Resource searched or tool used: wolfram alpha
Keywords used: Uranium, I tryed to use other keywords but it couldn't compute the request.
Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): I was unable to use anything other then Uranium due to the way this site works.
Date of search:8 March 2010
Number of hits: 1
Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): This site gave me everything I need to know about Uranium in a technical sense. There for this was a good 5 on relevance.

Resource searched or tool used: Atnio
Keywords used: Uranium Mining and Colorado Plateau
Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): Bolean
Date of search: 9 March 2010
Number of hits 60
Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): As a whole the sites listed where hit or miss. Some of the sites deal with the excat topic but others only had half of the keywords used. So I would list this as a 3 on the relevance scale.
As far as the invisible wed search I had a great deal of trouble getting them to work for me. I was searching on one site and it ended up closeing out all my internet windows. Others just didn't seem to work for me.

Research Question

What are the effects of uranium minng? And are they worth it?

RJA #5C

I searched several dictionaries for both Uranium and mining, but I didn't recieve any defininations on eaither. I looked at Word Grabber and Wordnik.
I then searched infoplease.com and recieved some hits.
Resource Used: infoplease.com
Keywords Used: Uranium mining
Startegies Used: Uranium AND mining
Date of Search: 21 Febuary 2010
Number of Hits: 15
Relevence: 5
This search had a better return for hits that deal with this topic. One of the better hits that I recieved was the defention for Uranium Mining.

RJA #5B

Resource: Colorado Virtual Library
Keywords used: Uraniam, mining
Search Stategies: Uraniam AND mining
Date of Search: 21 Febuary 2010
Number of hits: Zero, 424
Relevence: I didn't get any hits with the Daily Mining Journal. I switched to search all publications and recieved 424 hits. The relevence is about 4 with this search

RJA#5a

Author: Laing, Glenn J.S.
Title: Effects of Taxation on Mining Industry in Rocky Mountain States
Volumes: 2
Name of seris: Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines
Place of publication: Golden: Colorado School of Mines
Number of publications: 2
Date of publication: 1977
Author: Warhurst, Aylson
International Development Research Centre (Canada)
Title: Mining and the Enviroment: Case Studies from the Americas/ Edited by Alyson Warhurst
Place of Publication: Ottawa, ON, Canada: International Development Research Centre
Date of Publication: 1999

RJA #4C

The first blog that I looked at and then commented on was http://holden1013.blogspot.com/2010/02/rja-3c-research-question.html.
The second was http://academicagression.blogspot.com/2010/02/rja-3c-research-question.html

RJA #4B

Boolean: MINING and COLORADO, EFFECTS and MINING near COLORADO
Math: +mining +colorado, +mining +effects +colorado, "mining effects"

RJA #4A

Keywords: 1. Uranium, Transuranium 2. Mining, Mine, Mines
RE/ST= Ore, nuculear, material reclamation, blasting, drilling, digging
Log= Industry to materials to mining operations to Uranium mining

RJA #2b: Research Topic

The topic in which I will be writing my research paper will be "The effects of mining in Colorado". I chose this topic for many reason. First of all, I have always had some intrest in mining. When I started to look into different topics that involed mining in Colorado I found a bunch of articles about the damaging effects that mining has on local areas. Due to these articles I became very interested in the topic. I believe that this topic will be very rewarding to me.
Although I have been interested in this topic for some time, I really dont have very much knowledge about it. I did read a few articles about towns in Colorado fighting to stop mining in their area. Also a article about the damaging effects of uranium mining, and the increased claims in the high country. Some opinions that I could address with this topic include: is mining worth the damage, are companies doing enough to mitigate the damage cuased by mining, and are the laws allowing uranium mining fair to all parties involed.
Things that I don't know include: what damage is created by mining operations, what steps are taken by companies to control damage to surronding areas, and what laws are in place for mining claims. I also would like to learn the impact on mountian towns that have, or had, mining operations in their areas.

RJA # 2a Possible topics

1. Will renewable resources reduce America's dependence on for fuel.
2. What is the environmental damage from mine waste, and are mining companies doing enough to stop damage.
3. The effect of opening new mining areas, and it's effect on local towns.
4. The effects of coal mining on Colorado.
5. Uranium mining in Colorado.

RJA #1: Areas of Academic Interest

These are some of the areas of academic interest that I might base my writing on for this semester:
*Colorado History
*History of the U.S. Army
*The attempted theft of Buffalo Bill's remains
*History of mining in Colorado
*History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers