The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "uranium" ...
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Yellow Dirt
The radioactive "yellow dirt" -- a world class deposit of uranium under the Navajo reservation in the American Southwest -- lay beneath an earthen shield until the U.S. government cam calling, desperate to make atomic bombs. The book reveals ow the government looked away as miners, and then the neighbors were exposed to uranium's dangers.
Tags: Native Americans; yellow dirt; atomic bomb; uranium; environment
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Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed
This book reveals how the U.S. government consciously looked away as miners, and then the neighbors, were exposed to uranium's dangers as it was mined on a Navajo reservation, in a slow-motion environmental catastrophe that last for decades and continues today.
Tags: uranium; radiation; mining; Navajo; Indian reservation; yellow cake; yellow dirt; EPA; Environmental Protection Agency; Indian Health Service; Bureau of Indian Affairs; Atomic Energy Commission; National Cancer Institute; environmental pollution; environmental disaster; nuclear power; atomic bomb
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Weapon of Choice
This series investigates the United States military's use of depleted uranium. The series reveals that some "54,567 soldiers said they had been exposed to depleted uranium sometimes or often". The symptoms of those exposed to this are vomiting, difficulty in breathing, and overall feelings of weakness. Furthermore, it has been known to bind to DNA, which can cause mutations and cell death.
Tags: contamination; battlegrounds; Department of Defense; soldiers; military; FOIA; damages; harm; medical; health
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Assault on Pelindaba
"Assault on Pelindaba is a story about global nuclear weapons proliferation and the very real threat of nuclear terrorism post 9/11. Experts agree that acquiring plutonium or highly enriched uranium, the material to actually make a nuclear weapon, is not easy."
Tags: nukes; atomic weapon; radiation; Hiroshima; September 11, 2001; Manhattan Project; Interpol;
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Nuclear Threat Made in U.S.
This story revealed how the U.S. government scattered tons of highly enriched uranium around the globe and then failed to get the material back. The Tribune documented how a misguided Cold War program called Atoms for Peace provided bomb0grade uranium fuel to dozens of nations in an attempt to win allies and curry favor. Today, 40 tons of this same uranium remain outside of U.S. control.
Tags: nuclear weapons; federal government; international relations; nuclear smuggling; open records
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Ill Rocky Flats nuclear workers
The reporters found that the federal government was limiting compensation for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers. The story focused on workers from Rocky Flats nuclear site near Denver, where hundreds of workers were denied medical and financial compensation. The reporters also revealed the full known human cost of the nation's nuclear weapons complex: radiation sickened 36,500 and killed at least 4,000 of those who built bombs, mined uranium, and breathed test fallout.
Tags: nuclear weapons; uranium; radiation; OSHA; federal government; insurance; illness
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Depleted Uranium Radioactive Dust
The investigation showed that while the U.S. military has downplayed the hazards of depleted uranium munitions. Also the "Pentagon has issued repeated denials that depleted uranium dust was a danger to the troops but...the military's own training videos told a different story." However these training videos made after the first Gulf War which warn about the dangers and show how to mitigate it, were not shown to troops before the second Gulf War. Causing soldiers to be "unknowingly exposed to this radio active dust and some claim they are sick today because of it."
Tags: military; radio active dust; residue; armor piercing munitions; Gulf War; uranium; Pentagon' depleted uranium munitions
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Is Radiation Killing Our Troops?
"'The Department of Defense uses depleted uranium for armor on tanks and for munitions to penetrate armor on enemy vehicles.'" says DoD medical expert Dr. Michael Kilpatrick. But the use of depleted uranium may be radiating our troops and civilians in Iraq, when "fine dust carrying depleted uranium gets in the lungs and into the lymph system, causing illnesses, includding cancer and birth defects in the children of those exposed." Other possible methods of exposure include ingestion through food or drinking water, and skin contact through open wounds or from embedded shrapnel. (Daytona Beach, FL) News-Journal staffwriter Audrey Parente follows the story of Dustin Brim, who died of cancer after his tour of duty in Iraq. Article has great graphic explaining depleted uranium armor and munitions.
Tags: Iraq; radiation exposure; depleted uranium munitions; DU; Army Spc Dustin Brim; Congress; National Guard; Gulf War illnesses
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Blighted Homeland
During the Cold War, the federal government, seeking to increase its nuclear arsenal, mined uranium on a Navajo reservation that spanned parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, with 3.9 million tons of uranium ore chiseled and blasted from the mountains between 1944 to 1986. Fifty years after a medical journal noted an almost complete lack of cancer on the reservation, that mining left a mark that still persists today. The L.A. Times finds that "groundwater is contaminated, gray mine wastes cascade down hillsides and erosion exposes once-buried radiation at reclaimed mines and illegal dump sites." Some Navajos have suffered from lung and breast cancer, attributable to the harsh conditions created by the mining. Now uranium is once again rising in price, and mining companies are preparing to move in again, this time with new technology. But still with environmental consequences.
Tags: Uranium; uranium mining; Navajo reservation; cancer rates; Cold War; environmental effects of mining
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What the atomic age left behind
This series described a 10.5-million-ton pile of nuclear waste polluting the Colorado River. The waste was left over from decades of milling uranium ore, first for atomic weapons and later for nuclear fuel. For decades, the pile of toxic and radioactive waste leaked into the river, which provides the drinking water for more than 20 million people in three western states. It was the largest of the dozens of piles of tailings and the only one that hadn't been moved away from major rivers in the United States. And for a while, it appeared it would stay put, contaminating the river for centuries.
Tags: water pollution; Colorado River; nuclear waste; atomic weapon; nuclear fuel; radioactive waste; drinking water; water contamination