A URANIUM REFINERY FOR SASKATCHEWAN

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A URANIUM REFINERY FOR SASKATCHEWAN?

2
Our Predicament

• Premier Calvert and Hon. Eric Cline have
  succumbed to the idea of value added for our
  uranium. They are thinking of the value-added
  jobs, wages, business, industry, money, and
  royalties.
• They do not care about the value-added
  radiation for the workers and the people, for the
  chemicals which damage the health of people and
  despoil the environment.

3
Whats Wrong With Going Nuclear?

• The problems have not gone away which caused the
  citizens of Warman and district to reject a
  refinery back in the 1970s.

4
Developments

• Cameco proposed an extension of its refinery in
  Port Hope. The citizens raised so many questions
  that the proposed plans were withdrawn.

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Port Hope Conversion Facility

• Only uranium conversion facility in Canada and
  one of four in the western world
• Only producer of uranium dioxide (UO2) for
  Canadian-made Candu reactors 2,800 tonnes per
  year of UO2
• Produces uranium hexafluoride (UF6) shipped to
  USA for enrichment 12,500 tonnes per year
• The only uranium conversion facility which uses a
  wet process to make uranium tetrafluoride (UF4)
  from UO2thereby reducing hydrogen fluoride (HF)
  consumption.
• UF4 is used to manufacture depleted uranium metal
  which is used in radioactive ammunition

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Learning from the Past

• We need to learn from the experiences and
  discoveries of the citizens of Port Hope about
  the realities of a uranium refinery or conversion
  facility.

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Port Hope Conversion Facility

• A conversion facility is a huge operation to be
  placed in any of our communities.

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A Mammoth Structure
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Gargantuan Water Requirement

• A refinery uses tremendous amounts of water.
  Cameco is installing a new water system for its
  Port Hope conversion facility, consisting of an
  intake pipe one metre in diameter, extending 880
  metres out into Lake Ontario, with a capacity for
  pumping 33,000 cubic metres per day! Is this one
  of the reasons for a proposal for a dam at North
  Battleford on the North Saskatchewan River?

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• Some 3.5 million cubic metres of low level
  radioactive waste have been deposited in the soil
  around Port Hope over many years, for which the
  authorities are now considering potential ways to
  dispose of it.

One more ounce of additional contamination added
to the 3.5 million cubic metres of contaminated
soil surrounding us would be an ounce too
much. - Farley Mowat, Member of FARE (Families
Against Radiation Exposure)
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Yellowcake and Fuel Pellets
Yellowcake
Is in turn produced into Fuel Pellets
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• Large amounts of chemicals are used in the
  processing of uranium yellowcake to produce
  enriched uranium. These heavy acids used are a
  danger to the underground waters of the region
  around a refinery.

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Dangerous Byproducts

• The citizens of Port Hope discovered these
  byproducts of refining in their area

• 60 kilograms a year of fine uranium dust
  dispersed in the air
• 9.3 tonnes of ammonia used in the process
• 113 tonnes of nitrous oxide released
• 507 kilograms of fluoride released into the air,
  causing negative health conditions

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A Citizens Report

• 1. We are told it is safe to live here.
• 2. We are told the 60 kilograms of Uranium
  emissions in 2003 were absorbed.
• 3. We are told the 1 kilogram of Uranium in water
  emissions is very small.
• 4. We are told the Ammonia in air released in the
  centre of our historic town and waterfront, all
  9.3 tonnes is not very harmful.
• 5.We are told the Nitrous Oxide released into the
  air, 113 tonnes, is within MOE standards.
• 6. We are told the Fluoride released into the air
  totals 507 kilograms.
• Alexandra McKee-Bennett, a nurse and resident of
  Port Hope, Ontario,September 28, 2004
  presentation on to the Port Hope City Council
  http//www.icucec.org/HopeBrief.pd

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Hazards of the Acids

• In the production of hexafluoride (UF6), large
  quantities of hydrochloric acid are used which
  can cause health problems such as asthma.
• Plus, the chlorofluorocarbon emissions (CFCs)
  destroy the ozone layer at several thousand times
  that of carbon dioxide.

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Byproduct of the Conversion Process

• Cameco's license permits them to produce up to
  2,000 tonnes of depleted uranium a year in the
  metals facility. Cameco will not reveal who are
  their customers. F.A.R.E

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Malvesi, France

• In Malvesi, France, a heavy downpour of rain
  caused some containment ponds holding large
  amounts of acid to rupture and to flow across the
  countryside, spreading thorium-234, nuclide
  americum-241 and large amounts of liquid nitrates.

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Before the Storm
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The Aftermath
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SGI or Mobile Home Policy

• It states that it does not cover damage caused
  by a nuclear incident as defined in the Nuclear
  Liability Act. Nor do we cover nuclear explosion
  or contamination by radioactive material.
• SGI CANADA Policy Booklet,
• 1168 HM -16 01/2006, Part 1, (m), p.16

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Radiation Damage

• Uranium mines and mill workers are still being
  exposed to radiation by alpha particles.
• If one of the highly charged particles hits the
  delicate interior lung tissue of a worker it can
  damage the chromosomes in the cells.
• Some 15-20 years later this damage may turn
  cancerous.
• If a spontaneous, random particle hits the
  chromosomes, the damage is done.
• It is not a matter of averaging the radiation
  doses to which the miners/workers are exposed.

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New Study Regarding Radiation

• In living lung tissue, if one of the cells
  adjacent to the particle is damaged in a certain
  way, it can become a cancer cell later on,
  spreading rapidly through the lung, causing
  almost certain death.

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Alpha Rays From a Radioactive Particle in a Lung
Tissue

• The black star shows the tracks made over a 48
  hour period by alpha rays emitted from a
  radioactive particle of plutonium lodged in the
  lung tissue of an ape (the particle itself is
  invisible).
• photo by Robert Del Tredici from his book
  entitled At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb
  (Harper and Row, 1987)

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Inadequacy of Dosimeters

• The dosimeters, with their sensitive film, used
  to detect radiation of workers, measure the
  external bombardment of the skin.
• However, they do not measure the number of alpha
  particles that penetrate the internal tissues of
  the lungs.

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• We can ignore the dangers of radiation but the
  dangers of radiation will not ignore us.

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Radiation Risk

• Recent findings of the 40 scientists who prepared
  the Report of the European Commission on
  Radiation Risk (2003), found that the present
  standards for radiation risk are deficient and
  dated, because they were formulated before DNA
  was discovered.
• This Report discovered that low-dose alpha
  radiation is more dangerous than high doses (the
  Petkau Response).
• The BEIR VII Report (Biological Effects of
  Internal Radiation) declared in 2005, that there
  are no safe levels of radiation.

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The Present Situation

• Mr. Donald Ching, current President of Areva
  (Cogema), has said at public meetings around the
  province that Areva would not build a conversion
  facility in any jurisdiction where it was not
  wanted.
• We need to give him and the Premier a clear
  message now.

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MAKE SASK AND THE WORLD

• A CLEAN GREEN NUCLEAR FREE ZONE

STOP URANIUM MINING-NO REFINING-NO CONVERSION-NO
REACTOR-NO REPROCESSING-NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS-NO
SPENT FUEL STORAGE
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Thanks For Watching

• Let the Premier and your MLA
• know about your concerns for
• this project.
• Government does not change
• until the people demand it.
• (Commentary in the recent movie,
• An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore).
• Prepared by Bill Adamson,
  Saskatoon.