[Does so]

Newly mined phosphate releases radioactivity. Huge mounds of phosphate tailings run for miles and miles of many Central Florida roadways.

[Jane Long]

Newly mined phosphate releases radioactivity. Huge mounds of phosphate tailings run for miles and miles of many Central Florida roadways.

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Miles and miles of radioactivity in Central FL??

[Does so]

Phosphates were mined for dishwasher detergents.

Now free of detergent production, the largest phosphate amounts go into into keeping lawns green.

[JohnBovenmyer]

The rocks mined for phosphates also contain some U, Th and Ra and are thus mildly radioactive. Take out the phosphates and what's left is a bit more radioactive. The radiation was already there in the rock being mined, but after mining and processing the residual radioactives can some be blamed on a human company which lawyers can sue over it. So they piled it away is vast stacks since lefties weren't letting the waste be used in construction projects as in most countries.

An even better option would be to further harvest the original rocks for other items of value. It turns out what we're putting in stacks annually contains nearly as much rare earth elements as is currently being mined in the world. Mostly by Chinese monopolists. That could be extracted and sold for a lot by the phosphate mining firms.. Some U would be extracted, which could also be sold. But there also would be a bunch of Th collected and concentrated by any such process, which they can't sell and for which they'd be liable for eternal storage costs as radioactive 'waste.' Thorium based nuclear reactors have been proposed as a solution to the waste 'problem.' But haven't yet overcome the 'liberal' problem to reach fruition.