CNSC issues licence for Gunnar Remediation Project

[Oscar]

CNSC accepts Environmental Assessment Report and issues licence for the Gunnar Remediation Project

[ http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=920849 ]

January 15, 2015 – Ottawa

Following a public hearing held on November 6, 2014 in Ottawa, Ontario, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced today its decision on the Environmental Assessment Report (EA Report) for the Saskatchewan Research Council’s (SRC) proposed Gunnar Remediation Project. The Commission concluded that the proposed project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects, taking into account mitigation measures identified in the EA Report. The CNSC therefore issued a 10-year Waste Nuclear Substance Licence to the SRC, valid from January 14, 2015 to November 30, 2024.

In making its decision, the Commission considered information and submissions from the SRC and five intervenors, as well as CNSC staff recommendations. The Commission concluded that the SRC is qualified to carry out the licence’s authorized activity and that it will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security measures required to implement international obligations to which Canada has agreed.

The licence includes a regulatory hold point for phase 2 of the project. The Commission will consider the SRC’s request to remove this hold point in a future Commission proceeding with public participation. The Commission also strongly recommends that local Aboriginal groups be invited to participate in the project’s environmental and follow-up monitoring programs, as the program’s requirements and mandate allow.

CNSC staff will provide the Commission with an annual report on the SRC’s performance, as part of the CNSC’s annual reports on uranium fuel cycle facilities.

The Record of Proceedings, including Reasons for Decision, is available upon request by contacting the Commission Secretariat. It will be available in both official languages on the CNSC website at a later date. The transcripts of the hearing are available on the CNSC website at [ http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca ] or by contacting the CNSC. The webcast of the hearing is also archived on the same site, for a 90-day period.

The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians and the environment; to implement Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public.

Quick facts

The former Gunnar Legacy Uranium Mine site was operated by Gunnar Mining Limited from 1955 to 1963, in northern Saskatchewan. The site was officially closed in 1964 with minimal decommissioning.
The former Gunnar Mine and Mill site consisted of open and underground mine pits, three mine tailings deposits covering over 70 hectares of land, and waste rock piles. Management of the site later became the responsibility of the Province of Saskatchewan.
The Waste Nuclear Substance Licence will allow the remediation of the various site components.

Contacts

Aurèle Gervais
Media and Community Relations
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
613-996-6860
1-800-668-5284

mediarelations@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca

[Oscar]

Saskatchewan uranium mine's costly legacy

[ http://www.leaderpost.com/business/ener ... story.html ]

by Ann Coxworth and Peter Prebble, The Leader-Post, Regina, Feb 26, 2015

http://tinyurl.com/pwqsgvo

Fifty years after the Gunnar uranium mine and mill on the north shore of Lake Athabasca ceased operating, Saskatchewan is faced with huge environmental liabilities.

Driven by a government of Canada decision to supply uranium to the United States Atomic Energy Commission for military purposes, uranium ore was mined and milled at the Gunnar site from 1955 to 1963.

All the Gunnar uranium was sold for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

However, the haunting legacy of Gunnar doesn't stop there. The area around the site remains badly polluted from mining and milling operations. Minimal decommissioning took place when the operation closed down, and the cost of cleanup is now an ongoing burden to Saskatchewan taxpayers.

In 2006, the governments of Saskatchewan and Canada entered into an agreement to equally share the cost of remediating the site,
estimated at that time to total $24.6 million - $12.3 million for each level of government.

However, as it often happens, the costs have spiralled. The remediation task has proven far more complex than originally anticipated. To date, $60 million has been spent, mostly by Saskatchewan. Regrettably, the federal government has not signalled a
willingness to pick up any of these extra costs.

- - - SNIP - - -

Nevertheless, the mess left behind at Gunnar is so large that even when the planned remediation work is complete, the site will still be quite badly polluted. For example, two bays of Lake Athabasca will have elevated levels of arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead and uranium.

And the cost for taxpayers will be high, too. The Saskatchewan government is poised to post a liability of more than $200 million on
the provincial books just for the Gunnar mine cleanup.

One big question is: Where is the federal government in all of this?

Why is it leaving Saskatchewan taxpayers and their government on the hook for covering these rising cleanup costs? And why is the
Saskatchewan government so meekly accepting this liability?

Our national government should be covering half of the remediation costs, not only because of the principle established in 2006 that
cleanup costs would be equally shared with the province but because it was Ottawa's policy of supplying uranium for nuclear weapons
purposes that drove the development of the Gunnar uranium project in the first place.

For the federal government to decline to step in to help with additional cleanup costs beyond the originally committed $12.3
million is, to put it mildly, disappointing and puzzling.

---------------------------------

Ann Coxworth is a board member of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society.

Peter Prebble is the society's environmental policy director.