iitiiii‘iciiesaiiiitiie Toxic Debris

gees in own land

i in particular, ningful way to often learn of iey are well into? or example, the at, in‘ the late a large French ration leases in i;rst time the thisvvvas when nes being burnt. (19 taking place so. , the Save the em Saskatche- ve people were 9 The Indians their ancestral nsation or prior eople who have- . refugees.

- public input, the

Nd of inquiry to V proposed mine rmsgof reference aboriginal rights

or did the terms "

to stop the mine.

- public environ— e federal crown clear Ltd., had . its $95 million ne. In addition, at drained, a 200 i the» site, and

employee accommodations constructed. all under the name of "exploration”.'

»' For these reasons the inquiry was boycotted by community and environment-

> al groups throughout Saskatchewan

When the Key Lake Inquiry opened in La Ronge, a group of more than 50 people marched down Main Street demanding recognition of native rights and an end to uranium mining- The group of protesters

’was part of‘a "Caravan for SurVival'i that

travelled from Regina to Saskatoon and Prince Albert, to publiCize their concern over human rights Violations by the government and uranium companies. To "record" the event, in Prince Albert. "camera men" equipped with long tele- photo lenses were stationed on the roofs of buildings as was a video crew on the street.-

LaRonge. situated about half way up the province is the gateway point for northern uranium developments. Due to the uranium boom, the population of the t0wn has doubled to about 3,500.

Not everyone is happy in La Ronge. however. ’ '

Early this spring a molatov cocktaiT was thrown through the front office window of Uranerz Canada . Ltd., a West German owned uranium exploration and mining company The cocktail did not ignite but Uranerz reacted by spending over $10,000 on installing bullet proof glass.

Uranerz Owns 50 per cent of the Rabbit Lake mine and one-third of the Key Lake mine.

at levels. of per in lakes from the ncentrations for human As well, it is ultant’s of Lake mine, hto presenta

m from the re more than stated by the n Service to ost 15 times king water (.3 0 Health and

re6timesthe i salmon (.03 tried by the Vironment). l FookesrLake, ore than 100 ntration" for i' Health and is per billioni Diem is high ""3 drainage Stream from 99 operation. nyiron‘mental “u: 3.4, junior: The low pH is riC 8010 from

oxrdization of pyrite contained in miil wastes, combined With the addition of large quantities of sulfuric acid in the milling process. A particular problem With acidic wastes 5 that high acidity increases the solubility of radium, uranium, thorium, and other heaw metals.

~Groundwa‘ter. contamination is also a problem, though until recently 'it has not been recognized by regulatory authorities.

Water quality is often iudged by surface ,

water monitoring alone. This ignors the ground water seepage problem Contamin- ation of groundwater has been taking place for almost 30 years, as common practice since the beginning of mining in the early 1950’s according to the Atomic Energy ‘Comrol Board has been to simply dump wastes directly on the Swface and into lakes and streams.

Uranium mine and mill wastes degrade water quality to such a degree that aquatic communities are completely eradicated in the immediate Vicinity of a mine.

As distance increases from the source of Containtnatiori,>the effect on plants is no longer so obwous, however, radioactiVity and heavy metals can travel through a complexity of biological pathways and build up to high concentrations, . '

Radioactivity in the environment

eventually finds its way up the food chain to

animals, and this, one must remember, includes people ’

This area of 'study is almost completely unexplored in the Canadian context. Nevertheless, an example of a biological

pathway to pepple that has been confirmed through seientific study 1‘- om: involvrng the honest to-reindrzer to human chain

nuns». .Cle‘I‘SlS from the Unitersity of Hvsinki, found that people consmning rei .deer that ate contaminated lichen ended up Witt: 8 Lotus the normal level or radioactiwty in their blood. Lichens accumulate greater amounts of trace elements than other plants because their :‘aw :“'Z".‘.'7.:“ ..1.,; cases trier exposure time to enwronmental contaminants.

Researcn in RusSIa by A ll'enko found the effect on small mammals living in areas with high uranium and radium concentrations is greater incidence of sterility. it was also found that gamma radiation reduced bird populations, by reducmg the number of hatching eggs Generally though, research is limited to bioaccumiilation of radioactivity in the aquatic enwronment. and doe; not examine the impact of that bioaCCumu'lation

A study on the accumulation ol radiOisotopes in plants and fish was recenth conducted by Eldorado Nuclear at their Dubvna mine, Situated 12 km, NE of Uranium City Results of this work Clea. ly showed that levels of radioactiVity in plants and fish were thousands of times greater than levels in the Surrounding water. an-r that the degree of uptake is element ant; speCies speCific

FOr example, of the three aquatic plants studied, milifoil concentrated uranium the greatest (at 14,000 timesi while waterliiy concentrated greater amounts of radium (at

.11,000 times), and sedge the greatest

amount of lead-210 (at 13.000 times)

Radioactiwty accumulated by both Northern Pike and Lake Trout is concentrated more in the bone (up to 11,000 times) than in the flesh (up to 6,500 times) and therefore several parts of such fish must be examined to determine such accumulations

The degree of concentration thOugh,- is

species speCific Lake Trout were‘ found to.

have greater levels of uranium, thorium. and lead~210 for example, but \lOrthern Pike had the greatest level of radium

The. effects of radioactivity on some SpeCies of fish are known though a great deal of reSearth has nor been done in a sample of its?“ taken bx Eldorado Nuclear Ltd, downstrr- mi from the Bethr'"i'V'(lv ‘T‘ines. examination show-rd 25‘- o‘ the tax:- Chub caught to have eye itefOrmities St r'it the fish had one or both pupils detour-c,

Eldorado Nuclear's studies did "or examine the effects of radioactivin at higher p0ints in the food chain,

Perhaps this type of- research is warranted since a number of cow moose have bet-v“ faund carrying a twowheaded fetus rug-y Northern Saskatchewan uranium mii‘es 80me may say this is merely COITWCldc‘"i."3 but it is not coincicence that the main foot: 3" moose, aquatic plants. are high.» contaminated with radioactivity —~ as confirmed by the Dubyna Lake samcizis noted above.

NO SOLUTlON lN SIGHT TO WASTE PROBLEM

If present expansion plans take place, t‘te annual production of solid wastes Will more than double by 1990. in their current searCh for a longterm solution to Contamination by wastes, .government and, industry are conSidering "encapsulatio i" on the SL."?"- 0r.underground, both of which have se' drawbacks. '

Surface isolation schemes hold the risk :‘ being exposed to erOSion and weathervg

‘ underground isolation has the advantage _2‘

avoiding catastrophic pollution on the surface though there is'no guarantee U‘JI such pollution will not occur undergrounc

Even ‘barring the possibility of a catastrophe, due to the difflCUlIy» in

The jaws diet bite, Friday, January 16, 1981, page 9

eliminating seepage, the underground site . itself still has to be isolated from human use forever.

The waste isolation problem can be regarded as "solved", only when iongterni cotamination of an area is accepted

Seepage-proof, waste isolation proposals are based on the theory that seepage in anti Out of a waste area can be eliminated by covering'the‘top and bottom wrth an extremely low permeability material, thus preventing contamination of surface and groundwater.

Even though waste "encapsulation designs do exist, in the Canadian context there is a significant barrier to their implementation. in both the Ontario and Saskatchewan uranium mining areas, large volumes of low permeability material Simply do not exist.

What is more, seepageproof deSigns remain in the realm of unproven theory it is well accepted among hydro~geologis that seepage cannot be eliminated ow the short term let alone the long tern Needless to say, there is a high degree c uncertainty With regard to the future r. uranium mine wastes.

In short, it can be stated that the current form of uranium —— dependent, northern development in Saskatchewan is based on the "distant cow principle" — "the southerners get the milk and the northerners get the shit."

in the case of uranium mining, the shit will be around for a long time, and there's more to come.

' Uranium exported to. Soviet Union

The uranium industry, or the "front- end” of the nuclear fuel chain, is of key importance in the debate over the pros and cons of nuclear power. The reason for this is that uranium is the raw material used to fuel the nuclear industry.

Almost all uranium mined is used for either production of nuclear weapons or fuel f0r nuclear reactors, and negligible amounts are used for medical and industrial purposes. The exact propor— tions of these different uses is unknown because military consumption is not, made public.

However, it is known that Canadian uranium from the Port Raduim, NWT mine, was used, in part, to fuel he Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombs, and that Canadian uranium is being used by the French to fuel their regular nuclear weapons‘ tests in the South Pacific.

Over 90 per cent of Canadian uranium is exported. This means that less than 10 per cent is used f0r the production of Canadian-consumed electricity.

Most of the uranium is mined by American, British, French and West German companies. Canadian uranium is sold to the following countries: Belgium, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden,- the United Kingdom, the United States and West Germany.

Further, according to J.W. Beare, Director of the Safeguards and Nuclear Materials Branch of the AECB, uranium has been sent to the Soviet Union for enrichment (a further step in the processing for consumption by nuclear reactors). For example, in 1979 about 1000 tonnes of uranium owned by the Canadian crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. and the West German government-oWned corporation Uranertz Canada Ltd. was exported to the Soviet Union. ' r

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