Canada Uranium update
Published by MAC on 2007-12-21
Canada Uranium update
21st December 2007
Areva Resources Canada and its partners are seeking regulatory approval for the $400-million Midwest uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan. Having abandoned underground mining, the company plans to drain part of a lake to access the ore. France's state-owned uranium iner is also planning a feasibility study for the first uranium mine in the indigenous territory of Nunavut.
Eco-Justice, an environmental law organization, demands to know how the Quebec provincial government can allow one of its Crown corporations to explore for uranium on the edge of Gatineau Park, while fulfilling its responsibility to protect the environment.
The Inuit government is receiving conflicting information on the heatlh impacts of a proposed uranium mine in Labrador.
Areva moves forward on new Midwest mine
Uranium company to seek regulatory nod for $400-million project
Murray Lyons, The StarPhoenix
4th December 2007
Areva Resources Canada Inc. and its partners have made a final decision to seek regulatory approval for the $400-million Midwest uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan and the company has also committed to a feasibility study for what would be the first-ever uranium mine in Nunavut.
The Canadian mining division of the French state-owned Areva Group made the announcements Monday.
The Midwest project has been on the drawing board for well over a decade. At one time, the project did have regulatory approval as an underground mine. In recent years, however, Areva revisited its plan and is now proposing to extract the estimated 36 million pounds of uranium in the deposit through an open pit method.
Areva Resources proposes an open-pit mining method for its Midwest property, a method it already uses at its McClean Lake mine.
To get at the ore, one arm of South McMahon Lake will have to be isolated by a coffer dam and then drained. If approved, the open pit mine will eventually be about 45 hectares in surface size (900 metres by 350 metres) and 215 metres deep.
The Midwest project is located close to the landing strip at Points North Landing. Rather than use the provincial northern highway, Areva plans on building a dedicated haul road to move the ore 15 kilometres to the existing McClean Lake mill.
Included in the $400 million price tag for Midwest is a $100-million upgrade to the existing mill.
Areva Resources Canada owns 69.16 per cent of the project with Denison Mines Corp., a publicly traded Canadian company owning 25.17 per cent. The Canadian subsidiary of a Japanese electrical utility (OURD Canada Co. Ltd.) owns the remaining 5.67 per cent. The joint venture partners met recently to give the project its final approval. Federal and provincial environmental department teams will assess the project as will the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
"This is the last hurdle from the perspective of the partners to proceeding with the project," stated Don Ching, Areva Resources president and CEO. "Of course, we have a regulatory process that must be successfully completed prior to the development."
If the regulatory process proceeds in a timely fashion, Areva would then start major site work in mid-2009, says Areva spokesperson Alun Richards. Among the work to be done is building of the haul road and a water treatment plant. Stripping of the rock on top of the deposit could then start in early 2010 with the ore being mined from mid-2011 to 2013.
During its four-year lifespan, Midwest would employ 150 people and support the continued operation of McClean Lake, which now has 330 staff people and 110 workers employed by long-term contractors.
Richards points out several deposits, including one open pit operation dubbed Caribou and another one that is being called McClean Lake Underground, could keep McClean Lake operational until Midwest ore comes on stream.
McClean Lake has also been extensively upgraded as a processing centre for ore from the now-delayed Cigar Lake project, operated by Cameco.
In Nunavut, Areva is working on what is called the Kiggavik project with JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Ltd. and DAEWOO International Corporation, which are Japanese and Korean utility companies, respectively.
The joint venture will take two years to study the economic feasibility of Kiggavik, which has an early resource estimated of 148 million pounds of uranium grading at an average of 0.24 per cent. A full environmental assessment would take about four years and mining would not commence until about 2015.
In a news release, Ching praised the Nunavut Inuit leadership for backing the project and promised additional local consultations.
"They want a diverse economy and see mining as a means to help this happen, provided the environment is protected and local investment is maximized," Ching stated.
Areva opened up a community liaison and exploration office in the Nunavut community of Baker Lake in 2006.
Richards says the northern territory currently has no working mines, although the Jericho diamond mine is now under development. One issue to be solved in the future is transportation. Richards says it is too early to say whether the uranium yellowcake to be produced at the Kiggavik facility would be sent out once a year by ship or flown out on a cargo aircraft.
Uranium hunt in Gatineau Park is a 'shadowy situation': lawyer
Questions raised about conflict of interest between Quebec, provincial Crown company after request for moratorium refused
Dave Rogers, The Ottawa Citizen
14th December 2007
A lawyer for an environmental law organization has asked the Quebec government how one of its Crown corporations can explore for uranium on the edge of Gatineau Park and still fulfil its responsibility to protect the area's environment.
William Amos, a lawyer for Ecojustice Canada, formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund, said SOQUEM, the Société québécoise d'exploration minière, has filed 37 mineral exploration claims on more than 5,000 acres in La Pêche, west of Wakefield.
SOQUEM is a subsidiary of the Société générale de financement du Québec, the investment arm of the Quebec government.
The municipalities of La Pêche and Chelsea, north of Gatineau, have asked for a moratorium on uranium exploration in the region because many residents are concerned that uranium mining could harm their health, damage the environment and reduce property values. Quebec's ministry of natural resources replied that the province is open to exploration.
In a letter yesterday to Natural Resources Minister Claude Béchard, Mr. Amos asked whether the province's interest in mineral exploration in the Outaouais constitutes a conflict of interest.
"How is the Quebec government's financial interest in SOQUEM's exploration claims reconciled with the government's broader duty to protect the environment through the regulation of the mining sector?" the letter asks.
"Was the Quebec government's decision not to grant a moratorium on uranium exploration in Western Quebec (as requested by the municipal council of La Pêche and supported by the MRC des Collines de l'Outaouais) affected in any way by its own interests in SOQUEM's mining claims?"
Mr. Amos said SOQUEM has an investment portfolio of almost $2 billion and has discovered or developed five mines in Quebec. The corporation has helped develop a diamond mine in Ungava, marble and limestone quarries in the Gaspé and has done uranium exploration near Mont Laurier.
Yvon Trudeau, the deputy director of SOQUEM, said the Crown corporation is exploring for palladium, a valuable silvery-white metal resembling platinum that is used in automobile catalytic converters, jewelry, dental alloys, electrical contacts and medical instruments.
Marie-Claude Lemieux, a spokeswoman for the Société générale de financement du Québec, said the government mineral claims could not have caused the province to ignore a request for a moratorium on uranium exploration because the government can't interfere with Crown corporations.
"SOQUEM operates totally independently and Quebec law prevents the government interfering in any way with its Crown corporations," Ms. Lemieux said.
"Many people think we do invest on behalf of the government, but most of the time the government doesn't even know in which companies we invest. Otherwise, this activity could lead to conflicts of interest."
Mr. Amos said it is possible that SOQUEM is looking for uranium in La Pêche because it has explored for the mineral in the past and several private companies are prospecting for uranium in the area.
"There is no doubt in our minds that there is a conflict of interest," Mr. Amos said. "But we are giving them the opportunity to clear up what is a fairly shadowy situation in circumstances where the public has clearly expressed its desire to know what is going on and to ensure that no uranium exploration is allowed.
"If the private sector is looking for uranium, it is reasonable to assume that SOQUEM is looking for the same rocks."
Michael Patenaude, co-ordinator of the West Quebec Coalition Against Mining Uranium, said SOQUEM's mineral claims raise the question about how the province could make an impartial decision about residents' request for a uranium exploration moratorium when it could benefit financially from mining.
"The process of extracting uranium means that radioactive waste or tailings would be left at the site of any mine," Mr. Patenaude said. "The concern is that airborne particles could lead to radioactive contamination of wells, creeks and streams that flow down to places like Gatineau and Ottawa.
"We have been told that a mineral claim on a property will mean a 40-per-cent decline in its property value."
La Pêche Mayor Robert Bussière said SOQUEM insists it is interested only in palladium, but added he doesn't know whether the corporation's mineral claims prompted the province to ignore his request for a uranium exploration moratorium.
Selling the idea
Aurora holds open houses in north and central communities
KENN OLIVER, The Labradorian
5th December 2007
http://www.thelabradorian.ca/index.cfm?sid=85901&sc=347
EDUCATING THE MASSES - "They want to know what it's about, what the timeline is, how long it's going to take and the biggest concern with people is how do we handle the waste rock and tailings." - Aurora Energy Chief Operating Officer Jim Lincoln. Kenn Oliver photo
Labradorians closely watching the potential development of a uranium industry in the Big Land will be quick to point out that benefits and jobs are, at present not foremost in their minds.
Instead, their biggest concern at this juncture is the aftermath of mining development.
"Rightfully so," insisted Aurora Energy Chief Operating Officer, Jim Lincoln. "What we're trying to address, and we don't have all the final answers yet on tailings, but we're working on trying to get several options and we'll take them through the Environmental Assessment process and through that... narrow the options down to the best one. And not necessarily the cheapest one... the best one."
This is only part of the message that Mr. Lincoln and other members of the Aurora team and industry experts brought to north coast and central communities over the last two weeks. The open house style community information sessions began in Nain on the 19th of November, and concluded with an evening session in North West River last Thursday.
Largely, the objective of the sessions is to provide individuals, who have concerns or questions on uranium mining and its effects, with access to industry professionals who can offer them specifics on the subject.
"They want to know what it's about, what the timeline is, how long it's going to take and the biggest concern with people is how do we handle the waste rock and tailings," said Mr. Lincoln.
To help answer questions on how tailings are managed, Aurora brought in Golder Associates' Senior Radiation Specialist, Dr. Ernie Becker. The Canadian based company is conducting tailings and hydrology research for the proposed project.
Dr. Becker said when dealing with tailings and waste rock management to avoid the contamination of the natural environment, water is the main issue.
Using Michelin deposit as an example, Dr. Becker says that rain is continually falling on that rock and causing some materials, including uranium, to flow out in to streams. If water in that area were tested now, trace amounts of uranium, and other materials such as aluminum, are likely to be found.
The challenge in mitigating uranium mining is avoiding adding further amounts during and after.
"During operations, the water coming out of the mill particularly, and for that matter the water flowing into the mine, the ground water, may have some minerals dissolved in it," explained Dr. Becker.
"Well water typically tends to have some contaminants in it, so you cannot just release it, even though it's just water from underground. You have to treat it first, put it in the pond, measure it, make sure it's clean, then you release it."
At this point, planning for the management of tailings is, like the entire project, in its preliminary stages. Before the mine goes into production, today's regulatory standards require that a comprehensive and engineered plan for the tailings be developed.
Options
There are several options for waste rock and tailings management during and after operations. The first of which is to cover them using a body of water.
At Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario, a uranium mine developed in the 1950s, tailings management took place after the mine had ceased production. They went underwater there because much of the tailings had high sulfur content. Sulfur mixed with water and oxygenated creates sulfuric acid, chemically known as H2SO4
Dr. Becker said it's actually proven quite successful.
A more modern option involves using a mined out pit to store tailings covered by clean waste rock. But again, water comes in to play.
Tailings from uranium mining is typically dense material that, when stored in a mined out pit, will form a "very solid plug" according to Dr. Becker.
"Now there is groundwater flowing through the rock, but what will happen - and this has all been engineered and analyzed and they've done the modeling out to 10,000 years - the water will flow around the tailings because the rock is more porous.
"There will be no need for water treatment or anything else, when they close it down that'll be it. It will simply stay there, a solid plug, forever."
Dr. Becker says though, that it's all relative to the conductivity of the rock. But they do know at this time that "the conductivity of the tailings mass is about a factor ten lower than the conductivity of the surrounding rock."
Using a 1980s uranium development as an example, Dr. Becker said ongoing tests are paramount to ensure the mathematical models of projected water flow are accurate.
"Every five years they go in there and they drill more holes and check it out, and they check it against previous mathematical models and whether it's following what was said"
Thus far, every test he's seen personally has yielded results better than the models predicted.
For those who might think Dr. Becker is just a voice for the company, he has his own opinions on the matter.
"I personally believe the mine should not go ahead without careful engineering and a careful environmental assessment process. I'm all in favour of this, and they should be careful, attention paid to the environment so that this thing is safe for everybody."
'Ample time'
Mr. Lincoln said in terms of capitol, tailings management is not only the biggest technical issue, but it's one of the biggest costs the company will endure. His best guess puts the cost at over $100 million.
He also can't stress enough that where the project is in its early stages, there will be continual opportunities over the next few years for residents to voice concerns, challenge facts and obtain information from the company.
"There will be ample time to develop the enclosure of the tailings system correctly, and ample time for people to follow that," contends Mr. Lincoln.
"As we're doing that we'll keep information going to the communities and to the Nunatsiavut Government so they know what we know. When we get to the end, there's no one in shock, they've lived through the process and it's either environmentally appropriate or it's isn't."
These community sessions are the first of several community outreach initiatives Aurora hope to implement. There are plans to visit schools in Labrador to help students position themselves for employment in their native land in the future. Following that, as the mine moves closer to potential development, industry training programs could come about.
"I think we're ahead of the curve here," said Mr. Lincoln, "our absolute minimum that we could be in production is six years from now so we're ahead of the curve in training and getting to the people and being sure that the people of coastal Labrador have an opportunity."
Nunatsiavut Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, William Barbour, could not be reached for comment.
CONCERNS OVER URANIUM EXPLORATION: Inuit politicians are getting conflicting information on whether a proposed uranium mine will lead to health problems.
CBC Radio, St. John's
28th November 2007
NANCY WALSH: Inuit politicians are getting conflicting information on whether a proposed uranium mine will lead to health problems. Aurora Energy wants to build the mine near Postville. Company officials are in Labrador to argue their case. Paul Piggot has that story.
PAUL PIGGOT: Aurora Energy got its chance to speak directly to members of the Nunatsiavut Government this week. The company hopes to have a uranium mine up and running by 2014. But some Inuit believe it will contaminate their land. So Nunatsiavut is proposing a ban on uranium mining. But Aurora Vice President John Roberts says that's not necessary.
JOHN ROBERTS: The tailings will be about 15 percent less radioactive than the ore itself. It'll be disposed in an engineered containment area that will properly managed and designed in accordance with the standards of the Canadian [inaudible] Safety Commission.
PAUL PIGGOT: Roberts says the waste will be limited to a two to three square kilometer area. Retired Chemist Sidney Brownstein also spoke to the assembly. He says he informed the government that the area could be larger.
SIDNEY BROWNSTEIN: I'm not saying that what they said is wrong. I'm just saying that it's not quite the whole truth.
PAUL PIGGOT: He says over the long term radioactive waste including the dangerous gas radon will almost certainly travel much further. Brownstein says experience from a uranium mine in Ontario says that even minuet amounts can cause cancer.
SIDNEY BROWNSTEIN: We have well documented cases of much higher death rates in Elliott Lake because of the uranium mines there. That's a natural happening because of the mine.
PAUL PIGGOT: The Inuit will hear from two more uranium experts today. Paul Piggot, CBC News, Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
NUNATSIAVUT HEARS PRESENTATIONS ON URANIUM: Aurora Energy made its pitch to the Nunatsiavut Assembly this week.
CBC Labrador
28th November 2007
CINDY WALL: Aurora Energy made its pitch to the Nunatsiavut Assembly this week. In August, the company announced plans to develop a uranium mine on Inuit owned land south of Postville. Two months later though Inuit politicians brought forward a motion calling for a moratorium on that kind of mining. Now to help them make that decision, the assembly is listening to a series of presentations from uranium experts. On Monday, it heard from John Roberts, Vice President for Environment with Aurora, and he also spoke with reporter Paul Piggott.
JOHN ROBERTS: We're going to come and talk about the project that Aurora proposes to put in the Michelin area. So we'll talk about the, describe the project and the benefits of it, as well as we'll talk about the environmental controls and protections that we'll put in. In particular we'll talk about tailings areas and how those will manage and control the tailings from the facility. As well, we'll talk very much about the environmental assessment process, which is a key process for identifying the impacts and mitigating them so that everybody can understand what's going on and that they get designed properly.
PAUL PIGGOTT: The Nunatsiavut Assembly, through a process right now where they're getting a lot of different view points, some negative, some positive. I'm wondering what is your effort now to try to bring at least the Aurora point of view to bear here. You know, like we just heard last week, we heard about some problems in New Mexico, we've heard about, for lack of a better word, we've heard about horror stories from other areas. So what are you, are you here to try to dispel some of that or to, I just, trying to wondering how you're going to try to balance some of the view points that we've heard already.
JOHN ROBERTS: Well I think the, an important thing to remember is that from a number of the occurrences of the past, a great deal has been learned and today in the operations of uranium mines all over the world, but in particular in Canada and in Saskatchewan, the very best of new technology is being applied and we will also apply that very same technology and experience to our activities. And so we're quite confident that we can design appropriate protections and design, and systems that will protect the environment of Labrador.
PAUL PIGGOTT: One of the big points brought up last week was talking about just the amount of tailings, millions and millions of tonnes. Because it's low grade ore you have to go through a lot of material and, of course, that material is, in some cases, radioactive. So tell us about your plans. I mean this is the thing that I hear again and again, is what are you going to do with all of that radioactive rock?
JOHN ROBERTS: Well the, the tailings will be about 15 percent less radioactive than the ore itself. It'll be deposited in an engineered containment area that will be properly managed and designed in accordance with the standards of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. And, in fact, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and other regulators will have a great deal of say on what is the appropriate and safe method of disposal for those tailings and they've got vast experience in Saskatchewan and Elliot Lake and those areas making sure that tailings areas are managed safely.
PAUL PIGGOTT: You know, we're talking about an area that's very pristine, very beautiful and, you know, it's, there's fish and animals there that support the way of life. So what can you say to assure people that those resources and that Inuit land is going to be protected and not contaminated as we've seen in other parts in other mines around the world?
JOHN ROBERTS: Fifty years ago when people were mining uranium, they didn't have the techniques that we have today. They didn't know about the kinds of problems and in some cases, for various reasons, such as war time, they didn't, they had other priorities. And today they're very detailed systems to manage and engineer all of the protections. With respect to the animals and fish and the like, we're doing baseline studies to understand where they are, what they are and how they might be affected. Also doing traditional knowledge studies to ensure that we understand what the use of those animals and resources are and then we'll design programs to ensure that those are either protected or compensated for.
PAUL PIGGOTT: What do you do with all of that rock? You say it's going to be in a containment area, but how big is the containment area and what is it going to look like?
JOHN ROBERTS: It will depend upon the ultimate design of the tailings facility and there's a great deal of work to be done to be sure that we do that safely and correctly. But you can imagine a site that's two or three square kilometres.
PAUL PIGGOTT: So two or three square kilometres and what is the plan? Like we heard last week about several different ways. You can put the tailings and waste rock underground, you can store it above ground, you can put it into a lake and, tell us, what do you see? I mean I know you guys are still working on your plan, but people are trying to get and, of course, the Nunatsiavut Assembly people are trying to get an idea of what it's going to look like before they make this decision. What can you tell us at this point?
JOHN ROBERTS: We're very much into the engineering of this and it does take a while to properly engineering these things because you have to ensure that you understand the water, the soil, the rock, the material you're working with, the available construction materials; all of that requires a great deal of study and effort and we're in the process of doing that now. We envisage, and we'll talk to the Nunatsiavut Government today about three concepts we are thinking about on surface storage between retention structures, in pit or, in other words, back in the mine or under some sort of a water cover and it's most likely between engineered dams.
PAUL PIGGOTT: You know, one of the things people worry about here is an accident and what assurances can you give Nunatsiavut, if any at all? I mean there's no guarantees, right. What if there's an accident that's, you know, even the best planning and the best practices, things do happen.
JOHN ROBERTS: I think what I can tell you is that there have been no major accidents at uranium mines in Canada and that's partly because of two things, I would say; the good experience and great engineering and mining experience that there is in Canada, over a hundred years in mining. We're one of the biggest mining countries in the world and the biggest uranium miner in the world. But also the excellent review by the regulatory agencies, such as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, who understand fully how to design and engineer these things and they actually have more control of that design than we do.
PAUL PIGGOTT: I just want to come back in here though, John. You said no accidents. What about Cigar Lake just last year in northern Alberta or northern Saskatchewan?
JOHN ROBERTS: Well I understood us to be talking about tailings areas in those cases. Cigar Lake is, was the flooding of a mine in some of the most difficult mining conditions on earth. To give you an example of what's happening in Cigar Lake, they are actually freezing the ground prior to mining because there's so much water in the soil or in the rock that they're planning to mine that they actually can't safely mine it without freezing it. We're operating in very competent, well understood, hard rock Canadian Shield. There's relatively little water in it, as near as we can tell at this point, more work to be done there. This is not Cigar Lake at all. So the mining process that we will use will be conventional hard rock mining that's been done all over Canada and the Canadian Shield very safely for years.
PAUL PIGGOTT: Ok, thank you very much Mr. Roberts.
JOHN ROBERTS: All right, thank you.
CINDY WALL: And that's John Roberts; he's Vice President for Environment with Aurora Energy. Tomorrow we'll continue talking about uranium and what the Nunatsiavut Assembly is hearing. We'll hear from Dr. Sydney Brownstein, a retired chemist with the National Research Council.
EXPERT SPEAKS ON URANIUM ISSUE: The Nunatsiavut Assembly has brought a series of experts to Labrador over the last week to talk about the uranium industry.
CBC Labrador
28th November 2007
CINDY WALL: Well we've got another voice in the debate over a proposed uranium mine near Postville. The Nunatsiavut Assembly has brought a series of experts to Labrador over the last week to talk about the industry and they want more information before deciding on a proposed uranium mining ban. Now one of the people they heard from was Dr. Sydney Brownstein. He's a retired chemist with the National Research Council and he spoke with reporter Paul Piggott.
PAUL PIGGOTT: So what kind of things should the Inuit be concerned about or what should they be looking at when it comes to uranium mining?
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: Well there are two things. One, most mining companies throughout the world, of course, they're in it to make a profit and if the price of the metal or the product goes down, the mine will close and we've had examples of that for a couple thousand years already with gold and silver and copper, whatever, and antiquity and more recently with uranium at Elliot Lake. So one thing that they have to be concerned about is how long is the mine going to operate and are they going to be left holding the bag?
PAUL PIGGOTT: And the second point.
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: The second point is if there is mining, they have to worry about the radioactive contamination that will occur, must occur if there is mining. Now there the problem is how much will it be and what time scale are we looking at? How much it will be depends very much on local circumstances and the other thing that I can't talk about in detail is the time scale. Certainly, no ill effects would show up in a year or two. How about five years? How about 10 years? How much will the death rate increase? How about 50 years?
PAUL PIGGOTT: You know, we've heard from Aurora Energy this week and they've explained to us that the radioactive materials, the waste materials, the tailings and so on will be contained and properly contained and won't have, other than in about a two to three kilometre area, that they won't have impacts beyond that. I wonder what you think of that commit, that claim, I guess, by the company at this point.
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: I find that, on the basis of experience of others in other places, that that is a very short sighted view. It may be true, again, on a time scale of a year or two. To me that's too short a time scale. On the basis of a longer time scale, I would worry about the impact. The solid materials could be safely contained where they are. The, one of the radioactive products is a gas. It would escape from the piles. On average, it would only travel a few miles, but that's average. Some of it will travel much further. Half of it, say, would be contained in an area, I'll guess, five miles around the tailings site, but the other half will go much further. So it depends on how you talk about it, the way you view it. I'm not saying what they said was wrong. I'm just saying that it's not quite the whole truth.
PAUL PIGGOTT: Well tell us about that radon gas because the company says that if that material is interned in water or buried at the bottom of a mine shaft, for instance, that it's not possible for that to go beyond the area of where it's been interned.
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: This is true if it's buried in the bottom of a mine shaft. It's not true if it's in the water and the reason is this radon gas decays to give another product and then that decays to give another product. There are two or three more steps in the decay chain and these other products are also very nasty. So if the radon gas were in the water, it would decay in the water to give other products. The radon might stay in the water, but the other products would be carried downstream. And it's true that if you had an enclosed mine shaft the radon would stay there. But what about the pile of tailings? It's emitting radon just the same way as it's being emitted in the mine and that is not enclosed.
PAUL PIGGOTT: Well I wonder then, you know, should people be concerned, you know, if the company is saying everything's going to be safe, but it seems like there's a bit of a conflict with what you're telling us now?
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: Well it's a question of degree. It may be safe for a year, but I like to look forward to a longer life than that, even though I'm getting on in years. Personally, and this is just my personal opinion, there's no expert here, I would like to take a longer term view. And on the longer term view, I don't think it is safe.
PAUL PIGGOTT: You know, we heard from Aurora Energy this week and they said, look, there's never been a uranium accident in Canada and that the industry here is safe and the technology is safe and you've got nothing to worry about here in Labrador. That's what we heard.
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: Well this could very well be true that they said that, but all I can say is we have well documented cases of much higher death rates in Elliot Lake because of the uranium mines there. Now that's not an accident. That's a natural happening because of the mine. Maybe the tailings pond didn't fail. It didn't have to.
PAUL PIGGOTT: Now the men and women involved in the Inuit government here, they have a very difficult decision because some of their communities, there are people who are really counting on these jobs to come through. And I wonder, you know, from looking at it from that perspective versus the environment, I mean how do you balance those two and make a decision in the end that's to the benefit, and I think they all want to a make a decision that's benefit, in the long run?
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: Well this is their problem and it's a very difficult one. All I can suggest, I talked about the risks. What you're asking about are the rewards and all I can say there is I would want to look very carefully at other communities and how much, many jobs have been created for local people as compared with other mining specialists who have been brought in. I can't answer that, I have no idea. But it's something that could be or should be looked at in decided the rewards.
PAUL PIGGOTT: Thank you very much Mr. Brownstein. Nice to talk to you.
DR. SYDNEY BROWNSTEIN: Ok, it was a pleasure.
CINDY WALL: Dr. Sydney Brownstein is a retired chemist with the National Research Council. Yesterday we heard from Aurora Energy, the company behind the mine proposal. John Roberts says new technology and strict regulations will make the mine safe. And here's how one of our listeners reacted.
ROBIN HILL: Hi, this is Robin Hill. I'm phoning in response to Paul Piggott's interview yesterday with a representative of uranium mining industry. I know it's this gentleman's job to paint a glowing picture of the uranium mining industry and I hope there won't be any fallout from anybody going nuclear because of what I'm about to say, but the representative said that there had been no tailings pond accidents in Canada. I would like to point out that 100 million litres of radioactive water spilled into the surrounding watershed from the tailings pond at the uranium mine in Key Lake, Saskatchewan in 1984. Thanks.
CINDY WALL: Thanks for your call.
MESSAGE ABOUT URANIUM: A woman who is protesting uranium mining in Ontario says people in Labrador should beware.
CBC Radio, St John's
30th November 2007
NANCY WALSH: A woman who is protesting uranium mining in Ontario says people in Labrador should beware. Donna Dillman is on a hunger strike. She hasn't eaten in more than 50 days. She lives in eastern Ontario where a company is proposing to build a uranium mine. Dillman has a message for people about proposed uranium mining in Labrador.
DONNA DILLMAN: You don't want it in your community. I know that they're saying that the technology is safer now. Who wants to be the guinea pig for that? It might make some sense to get safely put away the waste we've got, the millions and millions, hundreds of millions of tonnes of tailings and all of that that we now have on hand before we make more. This is craziness.
NANCY WALSH: Aurora Energy is proposing to build the mine on the north coast of Labrador. The Nunatsiavut Assembly is considering a moratorium on uranium mining.
TALK BACK: Caller Caller "Andrea Marshall" of Aurora Energy regarding Dr. Sydney Brownstein's warnings about uranium mining.
CBC Labrador
30th November 2007
CINDY WALL: Well we got reaction from our listeners to two stories we aired yesterday. First we heard from retired chemist Dr. Sydney Brownstein who warned about the dangers of radiation, particularly when it comes to uranium mining. Here's a call we got afterwards.
ANDREA MARSHALL: Oh good morning. This is Andrea Marshall calling from Aurora Energy. I'm calling to respond to an interview with Sydney Brownstein regarding uranium mining. There were a number of glaring inaccuracies in his statements. First of all uranium mining, including tailings management, has been safely carried out in Canada for many decades. Aurora will be required by the regulators to engineer and operate a mine that is safe and one that will have minimum impact forever, not just for a few years as Mr. Brownstein alleges. Any company planning to build a mine is required to develop detailed waste rock and tailings containment plans which the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission must review and approve. Aurora must successfully complete these steps before a license to build a mine will be granted. What Mr. Brownstein talks about is the mining operations of 50 years ago in unregulated times. Mr. Brownstein states that radon gas from the uranium mine will travel in the air and water far beyond the mine site. Again, this is inaccurate. Radon gas occurs naturally everywhere. Radon gas measurements at operating mine sites reach natural background levels at about 1 km from the site. This is supported by measurements at operating mines in Saskatchewan. Thank you very much.
CINDY WALL: Alright., thanks for that call. And I should point out that CBC Radio is not describing Dr. Brownstein's comments yesterday as inaccurate. We are hearing from different points of view on this subject and so we're putting them on the air. But that is one opinion, that they were inaccurate yesterday.
-- WOMAN PROTESTS AGAINST URANIUM MINING: A 53-year-old woman from Ontario has been on a hunger strike for almost two months now in an attempt to block plans to develop a uranium mine in that province.
Friday, November 30, 2007 08:13AM Item # 15
CBC Radio St. John's
JEFF GILHOOLY: A 53 year old woman from Ontario has been on a hunger strike for almost two months now in an attempt to block plans to develop a uranium mine in that province. We reached Donna Dillman yesterday in Toronto just shortly before she left for her daily vigil in front of Queen's Park. Good morning.
DONNA DILLMAN: Good morning Jeff.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Why do you feel so strongly about uranium mining?
DONNA DILLMAN: I think it harkens back to the fact that I'm a grandmother and the kind of legacy that I want to leave for my children and grand children and all of theirs and yours for that matter is not one of traveling over the precipices with such dangerous products, substances as uranium. It's probably the most toxic element on earth and just generally we're going in a very, very bad direction and we need to pull back.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Just try to get a little bit more about how profound this decision to have a hunger strike, I mean there are a number of ways to try to maybe stop a development or protest uranium mining. But a hunger strike, why that route?
DONNA DILLMAN: Well I don't know if you're familiar with our history here but some natives who are claiming the land as unceded, blockade the site for 101 days and they were able to make history by getting into negotiations over that point with the government. But in the meantime many, many hundreds of settlers came to their aid during that blockade and when it looked like we were going to have to keep the pressure up and our presence in a big way, it seemed like it was something I could do. And then we. . . I'm not native myself but I overheard a chief say that we could live a long time without food but clean water is essential to all life. I thought well you know I can't swim Lake Ontario but I can not eat for a while and that's how I'm acting at this point.
JEFF GILHOOLY: So is it a protest against uranium at all fronts, the mining of it and maybe even a protest against the use of it in nuclear power?
DONNA DILLMAN: I'm not taking it that far just because I do want to eat again. So yes, it's for us here, it's about the first hole drilled, we don't want to go there. That the drilling has radon gas escaped and US Surgeon General has determined that radon gas is the second largest cause of cancer after cigarette smoking so we don't even want to go there. And yes I have some issues with the rest of it and I had the fortune to talk to the Premier yesterday and discuss those issues with him.
JEFF GILHOOLY: How much impact are you having? You mentioned you talked to your Premier there, I guess that would be Dalton McGuinty.
DONNA DILLMAN: That is Dalton McGuinty and I would say the impact is huge. Dalton joined me in a meeting with the Minister of Northern Mines and Development which in and of itself in my second day in Toronto was kind of doing well. So I would say the influence that we're having is great. Interestingly the Premier told me that the reason we need to mine for uranium and he's not backing down is that we need it for those nuclear plants. And I shared with him that eighty percent of the uranium that we take out of the ground now is exported and that we have a forty year stockpile at current use. So that he seemed to be unaware of so he's going to do some research on that.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Yeah. What we're hearing is the demand is rising quite rapidly.
DONNA DILLMAN: The demand in the world.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Yes, we know that in France for example they continue to build nuclear power plants. They're using it to get off of fossil fuel.
DONNA DILLMAN: Exactly and that's promoted as a clean energy but I think lots of people by now know that when you consider the extraction and well the exploration itself and the bushing roads and flying over the sites to find out where the uranium is, all of that. Extraction, trucking, processing, building the plants, it's a phenomenal fossil fuel use so there's nothing clean about it. It's cleaner coming out the smoke pipe that's all.
JEFF GILHOOLY: I don't know how much you know about proposals for uranium mining in Labrador, certainly I mean that's been a big story here for more than a year now. But what would your message be for people here?
DONNA DILLMAN: Take to the streets, you don't want it in your community. I know that they're saying that the technology is safer now, who wants to be the guinea pig for that? It might make some sense to get safely put away the waste we've got, the millions and millions, hundreds of millions of tonnes of tailings and all of that, that we now have on hand before we make more. This is craziness.
JEFF GILHOOLY: You say that you'd like to eat again so how long are you going to take this protest, this hunger strike because you've been at it, what fifty days or so now?
DONNA DILLMAN: Yeah I just want to make clear to your listeners that it's a hunger strike but I am drinking so I'm drinking a concoction of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup as well as herbal teas and pure juices. So you know I can take it a little longer, a fair bit longer probably than if I was on a water strike. At the same time yeah, it's coming, it's fifty-three days now and I would like to eat again but I don't know, I want to look at my kids in twenty years and be able to say we pulled back, we didn't go in that direction, it's not just about money, it's about community, it's about the environment and we want a planet we can live on and stay on for generations to come. And that's us, we've done the destruction, we need to pull it out.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Thanks for your time this morning.
DONNA DILLMAN: Thank you Jeff.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Bye now.
DONNA DILLMAN: Bye.
JEFF GILHOOLY: Donna Dillman is entering day fifty-three of a hunger strike against a proposed uranium mine in Ontario.