{"id":4517,"date":"2026-02-24T14:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/unesco\/?p=4517"},"modified":"2026-02-24T14:52:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:52:50","slug":"humanitys-uranium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/unesco\/?p=4517","title":{"rendered":"Humanity’s Uranium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claudio Pescatore gave a research seminar for 20 staff and students at the Linnaeus University Centre for the Environment (CENWIN)<\/a> in Kalmar, Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The title of his talk was \u201cHumanity\u2019s Uranium as a Planetary Liability – Its Chemical and Radiological Toxicity, Ecological Debt, and the Governance Gap.\u201d Here is a 10-point summary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Uranium in the Earth\u2019s crust belongs to geology: dispersed, buffered, and governed by natural timescales.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Once extracted, it leaves geology and enters history \u2014 becoming part of human systems, decisions, and liabilities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Less than 1% is fissioned for energy; more than 99% remains as a long-lived material stock.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Uranium is not consumed \u2014 it is redistributed into tailings, depleted uranium, fuels, and wastes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Its decay chain regenerates over time, while the uranium parent remains essentially undepleted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The hazard is therefore persistent, combining chemical mobility and radiological renewal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Remediation can manage flux and exposure, but it does not erase the underlying inventory.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Dilution depends on finite environmental buffering capacity and cannot be a durable solution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Long-term safety requires working with natural processes \u2014 containment, geochemical stability, and stewardship \u2014 rather than assuming closure against them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A sustainability debate that ignores this enduring, mobilised uranium inventory rests on an incomplete material accounting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Claudio Pescatore gave a research seminar for 20 staff and students at the Linnaeus University Centre for the Environment (CENWIN) in Kalmar, Sweden. The title of his talk was \u201cHumanity\u2019s Uranium as a Planetary Liability – Its Chemical and Radiological Toxicity, Ecological Debt, and the Governance Gap.\u201d Here is a 10-point summary:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28301,28297,72393],"class_list":["post-4517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogg","tag-nuclear-waste","tag-unesco-chair-on-heritage-futures","tag-uranium"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nHumanity's Uranium - UNESCO<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/unesco\/?p=4517\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Humanity's Uranium - UNESCO\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Claudio Pescatore gave a research seminar for 20 staff and students at the Linnaeus University Centre for the Environment (CENWIN) in Kalmar, Sweden. 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