Paper Title: Characterization of Radiation Detectors: Uranium Mines Monitoring on the Navajo Nation Utilizing an Aerial Drone

Author's name: Strawberry Livingston, Dr. Sundaram Arumugam, Dr. Peter Romine

The Navajo Nation (NN) was a mining hub for the uranium ore industry in the mid-20th century. Extractions of uranium on the Navajo Nation led to one of the largest radioactive spills recorded in United States (US) history, the Northeast Church Rock Mine (NECM). NECM is located 17 miles northeast of Gallup, New Mexico, and is one of 523 Abandoned Uranium Mines (AUM) on the NN. AUMs such as the NECM exposed community wells, water systems, and humans to high ionizing radiation levels. Contracted companies have evaluated these sites for radiation levels, but the collected data rarely gets communicated to the Navajo communities and to other local researchers. This project aims to bring new emerging technologies to help with data collection in monitoring these AUMs on the NN. Bringing industry-standard equipment will help with not only data collection, but it will bring hands-on experience to local students. The project’s concentrated Area of Interest (AoI) in the beginning stages is the NECM. The evaluation will be separated into three major phases to complete the monitoring of the AoI: Scouting, Monitoring, and Inspection. Each component will offer a new set of challenges and step into other disciplines as the project progresses into each phase, (e.g., Geographical information systems and Environmental sciences etc.). Upon the completion of this project, students and researchers involved will have built the capacity to post process and analyze data obtained in each phase, along with an executable workflow to help guide future projects.

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