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Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah), USA: Setting

Thomas De Pree

On July 16th 1979, the largest by volume radioactive spill in US history took place in Church Rock (Kinłitsosinil), which is located in the southeastern “checkerboard area” of the Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah) and northwestern New Mexico. Due to a breach in the former United Nuclear Corporation’s uranium mill tailings dam, an estimated ninety-four (~94) million gallons of radioactive, toxic, and highly acidic effluent spilled into the Puerco River (Brugge et al. 2002; SRIC 2009).

The Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill marked the disastrous beginning of the end for the uranium mining industry in the Navajo Nation and New Mexico. Ironically, the spill occurred on the very same day as an event 34 years prior that marked the beginning of the uranium boom and the dawn of the atomic age: the Trinity Test of July 16th 1945, “the day the sun rose twice.” (Szasz 1984) Unlike the world’s first nuclear explosion in southern New Mexico, the Church Rock mill spill remains relatively underreported and has not yet registered at a national scale of collective memory.

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xiaox
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Smart autoalarm guardrail is designed for helpping people emergency contact and remind the other drivers when car accident happen in remote area. People will drive on some remote area, or late night. If car accident happens, might be no one know the accident is happen. This design is help the litigant automatically make a emergency call, and send the location through the GPS when the car is crash the guardrail. As well as, it can turn on/flash the light within the accident area to warn the other drivers. 

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xiaox
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This design could help people in an unknow emergency situation, for example, the driver pass out when the traffic accident happen, and this design can help people to save life. However, I think this concept design might be cost a lot if it is applied into real life, because it means there are lots of guardrail need to install this system, and the government also need to prepare another extra fee for repair the guardrail after every accident. 

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xiaox
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Smart Guardrail is autoalrm and could be send location to the nearset emergency centre by GPS when the car crash into the guardrail. As well as the warning light within the area will be swithched on to avoid the potential sencond accident. The system is design to install into the highway guardrail, and use the circuit to make the system work. Therefore, the materials might be include electrical wire and circuit, and also plastic caution lights.

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xiaox
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Smart Guardrail is considered as a good concept design, because it can be solve the emergency problem for traffic accident in some situation. This design is applied a common materials and method to solve problem. It is a small change and might make a big influenced. But the design could be used or not is depend on the cost would be proportional to the value or not.

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xiaox
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This concept design is create a market which is within more functions and technologies for guardrail. In the existing market, there are some good design highway guardrail, such as EZY-guard smart guardrail. Most of the existing product are applied outter shapes and physical structures rather than some electrical technology. Compare to the existing products, this concept design is more challenged by the cost.