URANIUM: The Mines

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URANIUMThe Mines Radioactive Waste Left
Behind
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Uranium Mines
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Rabbit Lake
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Cigar Lake
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Uranium City
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Port Hope
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Ardoch Algonquin
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Environmental Threats

• Waste Dispersal
• Water Contamination
• Air Pollution Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Exposure to radioactivity toxins

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Waste

• Acidic, potentially acid generating and contain
  long-lived radionuclides, heavy metals and other
  contaminants.
• Whole groups of organisms have disappeared
  downstream from some uranium tailings areas.
  Radiation hazards are more subtle and will take
  longer to be manifested.
• Canadian uranium mines and mills have already
  created 109 million tonnes of waste rock and 214
  million tonnes of tailings. Current rate of half
  a million tonnes/year.
• Mining of lower grade ores will be mean more
  tailings.
• Long-term storage requires long-term
  institutional care. Auditor General of Canada.

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Who regulates tailings?

• Canada has no detailed laws on removal or
  covering of mine and mill tailings by mining
  companies.
• Tailings management of operating uranium
  mines/mills regulated by the Atomic Energy
  Control Board (AECB) and provincial authorities.
• Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of radioactive
  mine tailings or refinery wastes, neglected by
  the authorities, have been used in the
  construction.
• Tailings management during the operational phase
  has greatly improved in the last fifteen years.
  But even at the newest mines, radioactive spills
  are frequent.
• The long term containment of uranium tailings
  remains a major unsolved problem. Concrete "pots"
  have cracked and leaked after less than five
  years of use.

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Water Contamination

• Severe contamination of groundwater with
  radionuclides, heavy metals, and other
  contaminants has occurred at tailings management
  facilities and waste rock storage areas.
• Surface water discharges from uranium mining and
  milling facility have resulted in the
  contamination of the surrounding environment with
  radionuclides and heavy metals. Effluent from
  uranium mines and mills has been classified as
  toxic for the purposes of the Canadian
  Environmental Protection Act.
• Uranium mining operations involve extensive
  pumping-out of groundwater (in excess of 16
  billion litres per year).

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Elliot Lake
Robert Del Tredici
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Churchrock, New Mexico
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Key Lake
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Air Pollution Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Significant sources of atmospheric releases of
  radon gas.
• In 2004, VOC emissions from the uranium milling
  operations were equivalent to average annual
  emissions of more than 300,000 cars.
• The Rabbit Lake acid plant reported releases of
  43,000 tonnes of SO2 in 2004, ranking it among
  the largest sources of SO2 emissions in Canada.
• GHG emissions arise from the operation of mining
  equipment, milling and tailings management
  processes, and mine site closure and post-closure
  care activities.

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Hazards to humans wildlife

• Contamination of natural environment and wildlife
  near uranium mines and mills via windblown dust
  from tailings sites and effluent discharges to
  surface waters.
• Uranium mining operations involve major
  disruptions of the surface landscape, and surface
  and groundwater flows.

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What we dont knowcan hurt us

• How to eliminate, neutralize or destroy radiation
• Effects of chronic exposure to low level
  radiation on biota and ecosystems
• How to decommission uranium mines so as to
  minimize radionuclide migration forever
• Significance of other contaminants released by
  uranium mining.

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Care needed now and forever

• Decommissioned mines must be managed essentially
  forever to prevent the release of radioactive
  contaminants from tailings and waste rock to the
  surrounding ecosystem and community.

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Recent headlines

• Cameco says concrete barrier at Cigar Lake has
  been poured, work going ahead - February 19, 2008
• Cameco's Rabbit Lake mine back in operation
  (after flooding) January 2, 2008
• Cameco to spend up to Can20 million to clean up
  Port Hope, Ont., plant January 28, 2008