International Foundation for Research on Radiation Risk

The element uranium is the basis of and parent of almost all releases of radioactivity to the environment, yet curiously, until it began to be employed as a weapon, it had been quite neglected as a hazardous component of radioactive releases to the environment. It is not measured routinely near nuclear power stations or reprocessing sites. It is treated as if it were natural: which of course it is, but its concentration in these places, and the form it is released in is not.