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URANIUM: The Mines & Radioactive Waste Left Behind

URANIUM: The Mines & Radioactive Waste Left Behind. Uranium Mines in Canada. Cigar Lake. Uranium City. Port Hope. www.porthopehealthconcerns.com. Ardoch Algonquin. Mine. Mill. Tailings. Environmental Threats. Waste Dispersal Water Contamination

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URANIUM: The Mines & Radioactive Waste Left Behind

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  1. URANIUM:The Mines & Radioactive Waste Left Behind

  2. Uranium Mines in Canada

  3. Cigar Lake

  4. Uranium City

  5. Port Hope www.porthopehealthconcerns.com

  6. Ardoch Algonquin

  7. Mine Mill Tailings

  8. Environmental Threats Waste Dispersal Water Contamination Air Pollution & Greenhouse Gas Emissions

  9. Waste • Radioactive, acidic, acid-generating & heavy metals • Canada home to 109 million tons of waste rock & 214 million tons of tailings • Current waste generation: 0.5 million tons/year • Mining lower grade ore = more waste • “Long-term storage requires long term institutional care” – Auditor General of Canada

  10. Who regulates tailings? • Canada’s laws deficient • Operating mines/mills regulated by CNSC and provinces • Improvements but radioactive spills frequent • Long term containment of tailings remains an unsolved problem

  11. Churchrock, New Mexico

  12. Water Contamination • Groundwater contamination • Surface water discharges • Effluentfrom uranium mines and mills has been classifiedas “toxic” for the purposes of the CanadianEnvironmental Protection Act. • Uranium mining operations involve extensivepumping-out of groundwater (in excess of 16billion litres/year).

  13. Elliot Lake Robert Del Tredici

  14. Key Lake

  15. Air Pollution & Greenhouse Gases • Radon gas • Volatile Organic Compounds • Sulfur dioxide emissions • Greenhouse gas emissions

  16. What we don’t know…can hurt us • How to eliminate 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.

  17. 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 Can$20 million to clean up Port Hope, Ont., plant – January 28, 2008

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