Urgeiriça is a village in northern
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
near the town of
Viseu
Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabita ...
. It is part of the civil parish of
Canas de Senhorim
Canas de Senhorim is a civil parish in the municipality (''concelho'') of Nelas, in the central sub-region of Dão-Lafões in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 3,509,[Nelas
Nelas () is a municipality located in the Centro Region of continental Portugal. The population in 2011 was 14,037, in an area of 125.71 km².
History
Settlement of the territory of Nelas dates back to the settlement by Neolithic and Stone a ...]
.
Small
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
mines and a processing plant are located at this village.
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather t ...
mined during the early years of this site supplied
Madame Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, control of the uranium resources was a source of concern for the dueling countries. Many countries have purchased uranium mined and then processed into
yellowcake
Yellowcake (also called urania) is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before fue ...
from this site including
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
in 1980.
References
*Jolliffe, Jill. (January 14, 1986). "The Portuguese ponder the nuclear option / British firms may build nuclear reactors for Portugal". ''The Guardian'' (London).
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urgeirica
Populated places in Viseu District
Mining communities in Portugal
Nelas
Villages in Portugal