Saint-Priest-la-Prugne

In 1955 and 1980, there was a uranium mine near the village. As a result, there is a mountain of waste. It has to go somewhere. So, what do you do as the French government? You look around you, see forests and a large lake, and think: “Mmm, what if... And also: “But we’re not going to tell people too much.” That was without counting on Arlette Maussan. Arlette Maussan was a physics teacher. Arlette is worried about the former uranium mine in her village. For 1 ton of uranium, 5000 tons of natural ore are needed. Uranium is extracted from it. The residual material, what is called sterile uranium ore, contains too little uranium to do anything with. This has been crushed and used as road and construction material. Among other things, it was dumped here in the form of gravel on the roads, such as on the path of the Fairy Stone. Measurements show that the material is 14,000 Bequerel. That’s not huge. And certainly not dangerous for short periods. Here are some values of natural radiation in Bq to put this into perspective: milk has an activity of 40 Bq/l; a brick has an activity of 800 Bq/kg (source: FANC). The government says nothing about this and has no warning because it thinks the risk is too low. Arlette Maussan wants to denounce this and makes signs herself to warn visitors.

Pascal Brackman