THE ORIGIN OF NUCLEAR POWER - Loberg

[Oscar]

THE ORIGIN OF NUCLEAR POWER by Fredrik Loberg

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The Origin of Nuclear Power - A series of articles by Fredrik Loberg with photos by Mattias Rubin

As in many other countries much of the electricity in Sweden is based on nuclear power. Three of the biggest nuclear power plants are placed in southeast of Sweden, outside the city of Oskarshamn. In Oskarshamn the local newspaper Nyheterna is covering the production at the nuclear power plants, but also much of the discussion how to handle the waste from the plants. That is why Nyheterna's journalists Fredrik Loberg and Mattias Rubin went to Canada.

PART 1

Uranium has forced people to move

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Fredrik Loberg fredrik.loberg@ostran.se 0491-78 41 00
Publicerad 100325 15:40.

For over 30 years, a large proportion of the uranium used to produce electricity in the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden derived from Canada.

Uranium mining has forced indigenous people to flee from the land where they lived for thousands of years.

- Mining companies came and robbed us of our country, where we lived, fished and hunted. The land will never be restored again to future generations, says 88-year old Annie Benonie who today lives in Wollaston Lake Indian Reservation.

To Wollaston Lake, which is the closest town to the world's largest uranium mine fields, no roads go. Tourists are not coming here, rarely some politicians and almost never journalists. After driving the car a thousand kilometres north from the city of Saskatoon in the Canadian state of Saskatchewan, mostly on gravel road, we are fortunate enough to catch the small ferry that takes us to the reserve. Wollaston Lake is located thirty kilometers from the nearest mine, Rabbit Lake. From here, the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant in Sweden recovered much of its uranium, and OKG, the Swedish nuclear company, has a contract with the mining company Cameco to continue to do so until 2018, at least.

Impossible to live In Wollaston Lake 88-year-old Dene Indian Annie Benonie lives. In her home in the middle of the village she welcomes us. Her grand daughter Flora Natomagan interprets as Annie, like many other elderly people in this part of Canada, only speak dene. After we've talked for a while Annie feels very anxious to ask some questions to us:

- You say you come from a distant country, where you use the uranium that comes from our country. I wonder if people who live where you live, where you have nuclear plants, what you gain from it? What advantages does it give you in addition to the jobs the industry creates?
- Does it bother the people where you live what is happening here in our country?
- Knows the people that our country has been destroyed because of this uranium mining?
- I want people in your country to know what is happening here because of the uranium industry, that it made it impossible for us to live the way we have always lived.

Traditional life

Before the uranium mines' time Annie Benonie and her family lived a traditional life. They moved around and lived in tipis, tents, in different places. They lived of fishing and hunting, fruit and berries, just as her ancestors did in North America for thousands of years.

- We live of what nature has to give us. Nature does everything for us, Annie says with pride in her voice. Usually the family stayed at Collins Bay on the other side of the lake, where the Rabbit Lake mine is today. At Collins Bay Annies husband Louis had his trap-lines, traps he caught small animals in. There he hunted caribou and elk. The family made the traditional medicine of nature's wild plants.
- A few times a year we came to a village like this, Wollaston Lake.
- Otherwise, we lived this way, in smaller homes or in tipis.
Saskatchewan mines have supplied uranium for both nuclear power and nuclear weapons countries since the 1950s. Mining companies are constantly finding new deposits with high level of uranium in various locations in northern Saskatchewan. Here lives almost exclusively indigenous, or First Nations people as they are called in Canada.

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The money does not compensate

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Publicerad 100325 15:26.

In the 1970s, Annie and Louis Benonie and their family were forced away from Collins Bay. They were promised compensation from the mining company. At first, one thousand dollars per year and eventually something more.

Flora, Annie's grandchild, were at home the day the mining company people came to write a contract with Louis.

Permanent reserves

– They negotiated how much he would receive in compensation. They asked Louis: How much you earn in a year for the hunting? They asked only about the hunting, nothing about the harvesting of the plants we used to do medicines, nor anything about fishing. This was nothing worth.

– The mining company paid the sum each year, until Louis passed away and then Annie also got some compensation.
– But the money does not outweigh the harm that uranium mining causes, Flora says.
– Now, people are forced to live in one place, in this kind of village, and cannot live in the manner we have done for thousands of years before Europeans arrived here.

The life of indigenous people in this part of Canada has been affected since the uranium mining began. When it is no longer possible to simply make a living from the traditional way of hunting and fishing, more and more people become permanent residents in the reserves. Wollaston Lake with a population of 1 600 is the largest reserve in northeastern Saskatchewan. The village is only thirty kilometers from the world's largest uranium mine fields. Unemployment is high. Many young people feel despair and rootlessness and drug use has increased.

Spokesperson

Indigenous organization in the Wollaston Lake, Hatchet Lake Band, has some influence and autonomy within the Canadian State. Whoever is elected chief has a special mandate to act spokesperson against the authorities and mining companies. All of Wollaston Lake is not included in the reserve. Part of the village belongs to the Canadian State. On this side the police station, a smaller airport, ferry situation, a hotel and the radio transmitter is situated. Here are some new modern buildings and in these police personnel live.

700 dollars a week

The houses located a few meters away, on the reserve side, are of much poorer quality, old and worn. Many houses have broken windows. The people who live in these homes are poor.

In one of the reserve's better houses stays 38-year-old Adam Besskkaystare, father of two children.

For him, the uranium mines across the lake opened up new opportunities in recent years.
– Yes, I work there, and it is good. Now I earn the equivalent of $700 a week and it's more than I could when I worked in the shop here in the village, Adam says.
In three years he has worked in a mine called Cigar Lake.

Has apologized

Like the Rabbit Lake mine closest Wollaston Lake this mine is owned by the giant Canadian company Cameco Corporation.

– I work seven days and are free for seven days. It's nice, Adam Besskaystare says.
– It's really not easy to find any job here.

Adam is one of the few from Wollaston Lake who work in mining areas. Some villagers would never consider doing it. Others have not the right qualifications. Cameco has about 1 800 employees at the mines. The company claims to have policy to as much as possible to get their labor from the north, very sparsely populated, parts of Saskatchewan. The Canadian government has also more clearly than many other countries apologized for how the Indians, the indigenous population, have been treated historically.

The population suffers

Doug McKay, who has Scottish ancestries, lives and operates in a small shop in Wollaston Lake. He feels that the mining companies and the State of Canada should feel guilt, because they ought to do infinitely more for the indigenous population.

– In relation to what the companies earn, it is hardly something that will benefit the district here, Doug McKay says.
– The thing is that people here are too nice. They should be entitled to a percentage of profits, when leasing their land. They should get back what is theirs.

Doug McKay accompanies us on a flight over the vast mining areas of northeastern Saskatchewan. From the small rented plane, we can clearly see the minefields. Mining requires enormous amounts of water. The forest is devastated. The bedrock that once served as protection against all radioactive materials in the soil is blown away. The crushed rock masses are not left on the field.

– But myself, I can not say I am absolutely opposed to mining, Doug McKay says.
– The worst thing is that the population is treated so badly, that poverty here is so widespread, unemployment so high and that neither the companies nor the authorities cares, he says.

Can make claims

Perhaps it might be better.
There are those who hope and even believe it. Jim Tsannie is one of them. He is the brother of Wollaston Lake´s current chief Bart. Jim has worked for many years with indigenous issues.

– In recent years we have begun to emphasize our rights in a completely different way than before. Several of us have studied the problems. We have gained more opportunities to make demands on mining companies and authorities, Jim Tsannie says.
– Previously, the representatives from uranium mining companies described in words we could not understand what would happen with the ground. We said mostly “well, well,” without at all beeing able to claim compensation.
– There is something going on now. We have learned more about the consequences of uranium mining and then we can make more demands. That is what we must do and it will prove in the future!
Road construction south of the village of Wollaston Lake has recently begun, on the Canadian State's expense. But it is expected to take several years before it is finished. Mining companies have also helped with funding for an indoor hockey rink in the middle of the reserve.

Future generations

Flora Natomagan in Wollaston Lake is anything but impressed.

– It's good to have a job, an arena, sure! But we can not just think about ourselves.
– We must think of our future generations as well! If more and more of our land is destroyed, we have no country to live in. We must listen to our elders and their experience in our traditional way of life, Flora says.
Just like Flora Natomagans grandfather, Rose Hansen's father has lost the families' traditional hunting grounds to uranium companies.
– Where my father had hunting traps are now one large mining area. Still, he tries to survive on the hunting ground, he has remained around the mining area, but it is not easy, Rose says.

Rose is a fisherman by profession, but can not support herself from this. Every two weeks she and her brother David drive the small ferry between Wollaston Lake and the "mainland". Rose and David think that their dad should have gotten far more in compensation than what he did. How they will do, the demands for compensation they will be able to make the day their father goes away, remains to be seen. It is not easy to assert their rights against the international corporations. According to Rose fishing has also been affected by the environmental degradation that uranium mining causes. Rose describes how she, on several occasions over the years seen deformed fishes. But still, there are plenty of large, edible fish in the lake between the reserve and mines.

In Wollaston Lake many fear that mining will come even closer to the community. The population fears uranium mining also at Snowshoe Island, only about ten kilometers from the village. If so, even more ancient hunting grounds disappear. The villagers dread the new uranium particles with clear health implications will be disseminated by water and air.

The consequences if contaminated, radioactive materials once again begin to leak directly from mining companies' waste barrels nobody in Wollaston Lake wants to think about.

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Our land will never be the same

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Publicerad 100325 15:19. Uppdaterad 100325 15:19.

Edward Benoanie, whose family operates a restaurant, shop, school bus services, ferry business and the hotel in the village, is also worried.

Edward was the chief in Wollaston Lake reserve when one of the biggest leaks in the mine area was discovered nearly 20 years ago.

– I worked in the mines in the past four and a half years. By coincidence I flew over the mining area and could see how the barrels leaked hazardous materials straight into the wild. I knew immediately what had happened, because I had previously worked in the field. I rang up those responsible for the mining company. They answered me that it had not happened. The day after they were forced to come here and admit that there have been a leak, Ed Benoanie says.

– This was while the Berlin Wall fell. Therefore, it was pretty quiet in the media. But people here started to be more suspicious of how companies operate. We still do not know today whether and if so, what health effects this leak caused, Ed Benoanie says.

A number of similar leaks have occurred in Saskatchewan over the years. Authorites in Canada, however haven't found evidence of systematic health effects on humans, animals and nature in recent years.

But in our time in northern Saskatchewan, we have got several testimonies of mysterious illnesses. Flora Natomagan tells about a brother of Annie Benonie who died of cancer a few years ago, and that he himself was fully convinced that it was due to uranium mining.

Can’t live as they want to

– There are things we will never know. Because there has never been any professional health assessment here, that we dare to believe. Flora says.
– In the village we do not have enough money to carry out independent investigations. Previously, we could go and drink the water from the lake, and we were able to fish without worrying about whether the water was contaminated or not. Now it is no longer so, Flora says.
– And we do not know how mining companies after they leave the mining areas will take care of all hazardous materials.
Flora is in a Steering Commit, an international organization of indigenous people, to gain more knowledge about environmental pollution.
– It is said that there is no connection between diseases we have here, and mining. But I'm skeptical, and people are wondering, worried, Flora says.
– Never before has there been asthma here. Even our young people in the village now has asthma. Before people died of old age and accidents.
– Yes, I want the mining industry to disappear, because it has destroyed the possibility for us to live as we wish. But I do not think it will happen, because there is money in control, Flora says.
– The future is not just for those of us living today but also for future generations. We must defend the land, water, air, against this destruction. We must maintain the way we lived before the Europeans came and took possession of the country.

Important that we know

Flora's grandmother, 88-year-old Annie Benonie, now lives alone in her small house in Wollaston Lake. When we talk in her home, memories and feelings are brought to the surface, that hare difficult to talk about. But she says she wants to tell, because it's important that people also in Sweden know.

– My husband came to the mine area only once, and he would never return to it afterwards. When he saw what happened to our country, he said that it will never be the same again, that the land is ruined for so many years to come.
– People were healthy before mining companies arrived. But now, afterwards as time passes, there are more and more diseases.
– I do not know if it has to do with mining, but earlier we didn’t see these diseases, Annie says.
– Animals natural way to move, has disappeared, and the land has been destroyed. That will never be restored.
It will soon be winter and cold in the Canadian Reservation Wollaston Lake when Annie looks us in the eye and says:
– People from your country are welcome here to see how the life we have lived for thousands of years has been destroyed.

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Part 2

Uranium causes many deaths

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Publicerad 100412 11:36.

In the Canadian village where the uranium to be used for producing electricity in Oskarshamn has been processed, a large number of people has been affected by lung cancer.

Historically also many mineworkers have suffered from this.

– But the worst thing right now is that large parts of the world's nuclear weapons production is made of uranium from here, Peter Prebble who lives in the nuclear capital, Saskatoon, says.

When we are driving 14 hours to the barge leaving for Wollaston Lake we meet about 20 trucks loaded from the huge pits. Uranium powder from Rabbit Lake, McArthur River and the other Canadian giant mines in Saskatchewan should be transported very far. The first real city that truckdrivers are driving through is Saskatoon, which is equal to the Swedish third city Malmoe.

Here in Saskatoon both the Canadian company Cameco Corporation, the largest uranium company in the world, and the French uranium and nuclear power giant Areva, have headquarters. Cameco and Areva has an important role for the economy of Saskatchewan. Businesses create jobs and the companies are keen to be seen as much as possible in a positive context.

Cameco is for example a very important sponsor of the university in Saskatoon and owns a kidney hospital here. Both the markets of Cameco and Areva are also often seen in the city's theater lobby.

- It upsets me tremendously that even not a hospital can be operated with public funds, but allow themselves to be bought by these companies, Stephanie Sydiaha says.
- It's frightening, the uranium industry and these companies has caused so much trouble.

A disgrace to the province

Stephanie Sydiaha is one of the environmental movement's most important representatives in Saskatoon. Another is Peter Prebble, a former politician and now active in the organization Saskatchewan Environmental Society. He understands that uranium companies need to strive to be seen in favorable light.

- My very first objection is that the uranium from Saskatchewan has built up large parts of the world's nuclear arsenal, Peter Prebble says when we meet him at an ice cream bar in Saskatoon.
- For me this is a disgrace to both this province and for the whole country.
- Same thing with depleted uranium, used as ammunition in a large scale in the Iraqi war. Depleted uranium is a residue from the manufacture of nuclear fuel. It can be used as a radiation protection in connection with x-ray examinations.

More controversial it is also used as materials in tanks and ammunition. When the ammunition hits its target, it will be a fine powder, which can enter the human body through the lungs and stomach and into the kidneys and liver and poison cells.

The reports on how Iraqi children following the Gulf War suffering from cancer and birth defects for this war have been many. Suspicion exists that the diseases that a large number of returning American soldiers suffered was caused by depleted uranium.

Governmental Eldorado, which later became Cameco, broke the uranium in Port Radium in the Northwest Territories in Canada in the 1940s used for the nuclear bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945.

The Port Radium mine caused consequences for the indigenous population in the area.

Died of lung cancer

Studies from Saskatchewan, until the 1970s, have shown an abnormal number of uranium miners suffering from lung cancer. 65 former miners who worked in the Beaver Lodge-mine between 1950 and 1980 died of lung cancer. But according to mining companies and the authorities there is no evidence that people who works in the mines now suffers at all.

Kevin Scissons is in charge at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commissions, CNSC:s, headquarter for control of uranium mining in Saskatoon. He concludes that the mineworking has no negative environmental impact at all on communities in northern Saskatchewan.

- The law in Canada says it can have legal implications if the companies do not do the mining correctly. We could stop mining if its not following the rules.
- We had not done it the last few years, Kevin Scissons also says.
- 1998 or 1999 we made a decision to stopp. It had nothing to do with health or environmental impacts, but about that they had not received permission to start a new process. This was stopped about one month, Kevin Scissons says.

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Much is at stake

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Publicerad 100412 11:15. Uppdaterad 100412 11:27.

Jim Penna and Eleanor Knight from Saskatoon's oldest organization critical to nuclear power, the Inter-Church Uranium Committe, thinks that neither Kevin Scissons and his authority nor state organization Health Canada is doing their job.

- There will always be a big problem to take care of all waste safely after the mining, due to the extremely long half-life of uranium substances. The companies still have not found a technique that works to take care of the material safely, Jim Penna says.

- There are so many examples of leaks from waste sites, but the worst is that the CNSC close their eyes and not give the companies proper punishment. We require basic health studies of current workers in the mines and of people living in these areas. There is nothing more than a scandal that this still has not been done, Eleanor Knight says. In Saskatchewan there are examples of leaking contaminated materials that had been known long after the uranium mining stopped. The most large-scale leak was discovered in northern Saskatchewan, the Gunnar Mine in the early 1990s. From old abandoned barrels, there was a large leak of radioactive material in the big Lake Athabasca.

Cleaning up costs millions

Now, 20 years later, it seems to be a big clean-up. It likely will take several years and cost several million dollars. Gunnar Mine is close to the Uranium City, the world's largest mining area until the mines close down 1983. Now a deserted ghost town where only around 50 people still living. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, for example Sweden got uranium even from this area.

- The big question is how all waste after mining can be stored safely. It is only a few decades after the mine closed that it is possible to say whether the companies succeeded. If they fail, if it is leaking into groundwater, so we risk incalculable problems, Peter Prebble from the Saskatchewan Environmental Society says.

There are a lot of money, a lot of energy and many jobs at stake in the nuclear industry. Because of this Jim Penna, from the Inter-Church Uranium Committee, thinks that the authorities in the uranium mining countries have problems to see the environmental and health impacts in a serious manner. What is now needed is external pressure, from the UN for example, he says.

- Crucial for the future is likely if there is a much stronger UN resolution or not in terms of uranium mining. The present is not powerful enough and results not in some punishment in the countries where pollution occurs, or where people get affected, Jim Penna says.

During our stay in Saskatoon, we had no representative for Cameco to agree to either interview or to accept us a place at any of the tours in the uranium mines sites in Saskatchewan. This was despite a total of 5-6 requests before and during our trip report. The company chosed, apart from two short phone call later in our trip, to only communicate with us via e-mail.

After the trucks with uranium have drive through Saskatoon many of them continues thousands of kilometers towards east of Canada, through the neighboring Manitoba and staying in the southwestern part of Ontario Province.

Here, just outside of society Blind River, is the world's largest plant for converting uranium, which is also operated by Cameco.

Since 1983, the uranium from the mines in Saskatchewan going to Oskarshamn nuclear power plant, has been processed here. In Blind River uranium is converted to urantrioxid. Previously there were also another plant hear where the uranium was upgraded to a more highly active form.

There are people who are concerned about emissions of uranium vapor that spreads over surrounding region. Not far from here lies the vast mining area at Elliot Lake. There has also been uranium mining in this area.

The effect on the lives of indigenous people in surrounding region, all hazardous substances in the Serpent River, has been described in Magnus Isacsson's award winning short film "Uranium" from 1990. Lorraine Rekmans, whose father worked in the underground mines and died from cancer in 2002, has written the book "This is my homeland", about how indigenous people affected by uranium mining in Elliot Lake.

For decades, uranium used for example in the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant, has been processed here. Oskarshamn company OKG state that their "Camecouranium" comes from Camecos Canadian mines. The system in terms of uranium imports saying that there should be original codes, indicating from which country or region, the uranium is taken.

At our first contacts with OKG in the summer of 2009 representatives of the company declares that uranium mainly comes from McArthur River mine in Saskatchewan, but also the Rabbit Lake mine, which is closest to Wollaston Lake, are used frequently.

Impossible to track

But our inquiries and the responses we get to the end of Cameco says that there are no absolutely guarantee that at the uranium to the Oskarshamn originally comes from Saskatchewan.

Also from other mines around the world uranium is transported to the process in Blind River. During our trip in Canada, several people who worked for many years in upgrading facility in Blind River, says that it is impossible to track all uraniums original source.

- If someone says that it is possible to know how much a particular uranium mine serves a nuclear power plant is a pure lie. Uranium derived from several different countries and a number of mines are mixed in the process of Blind River, one of the workers we talked to says.

During the last days of our trip in Canada we get a telephone contact with a responsible informant on Cameco, Doug Prendercast, to ask about this.

- Yes, we can trace the country and mine, but not all the uranium to hundred percent, Doug Prendercast says first. But only just about an hour later he calls back to us. He says:
- I must really apologize. I was wrong before when I called. Because of the process technology used in Blind River, we can not trace anything. My colleagues have told me that this is the way it is.
- Sorry I had wrong information earlier, but actually I've never had this question before. It is not possible to trace from which mines uranium going to Sweden comes from.

Doug Prendercast, who has worked as an informer for Cameco in 7-8 years, says that the uranium that comes to Blind River, and then carried on to countries including Sweden, can come from any country in which Cameco have uranium mines. These countries are, for example, the U.S. and Kazakhstan.

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"Our Land is Stolen"

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Publicerad 100409 16:54.

Thinking about the origin of Camecos uranium or not Oskarshamn nuclear power plant can get uranium from any part of the world. The company in Oskarshamn, OKG, explains sometimes having to fill out its uranium needs by buying from the open so-called spot market, and this uranium can according to OKG not be traced at all.

As another example of how incredibly complicated world uranium trade is, OKG in 2010 suddenly declares that this Swedish company only use Cameco regarding natural uranium. The trucks from Saskatchewan which in decades have rolled against the Blind River and the conversion process there will then now drive souther across the border to United States.
During this year the U.S. company ConverDyn is contracted for conversion, Alexander Lindqvist responsible for OKG's uranium supply, says. The reason is some production problems for Cameco, according to Alexander Lindqvist.

- We must be sure of supplies, he says.

Good to deal with

Just like we have been told Alexander Lindqvist believes the U.S. radiation protection laws are stricter than the Canadian laws. OKG has also during its own check visit in the U.S. concluded that Converdyn is a good company to deal with. It is a company half-owned by Honeywell, which under the Peace Research Institute SIPRI is the world's 15th largest arms manufacturers and makes control systems for nuclear weapons. Honeywell is blacklisted by a number of ethical funds. After the Swedish Radio at the end of last year reported about the Nobel Foundations close collaboration with Honeywell, this cooperation has been critized.

OKG stresses how vital it is to make their own checks, during the conversion but especially in mining areas.

According to OKG, contracts of buying uranium is made after careful evaluation of the supplier's environmental and quality programs.

- If our suppliers gets bad will, it could spill over to us and we do don’t want that, Alexander Lindqvist says.
- We try to see as much as possible, meet with local politicians, representatives of trade unions and indigenous people so that we not only have the company's image.
During the autumn of 2009 OKG carried out a so-called auditering, an analysis on the ground in Canada.
- We saw nothing alarming, Alexander Lindqvist says.

Cameco has been in focus as a positive example. A year and a half ago, a seminar held in Malmö in Sweden, where Cameco told about their program to involve indigenous people in the uranium industry. Camecos efforts have got many positive reactions from uraniumbyers like OKG.

During our trip in Canada and Saskatchewan, we visit another place where few Swedes have been, another First Nation reserve. It is located just outside society Meadow Lake and at the weekend when we arrive the annual "pow-wow" is going on. That is a colorful celebration of indigenous traditions with songs, dances and cuisine. One thousand people has arrived.

Still angry

Here we meet Marius Paul. He has brought a bus with young people from another reserve area e, even further north, in Beaval. Marius Paul has been active in the resistance movement against uranium mining in Saskatchewan - in particular against the Key Lake mine, the world's largest uranium mine.

He has over the years participated in many demonstrations against the uranium industries consequences and he is still very angry.

- They have stolen our country, people have been forced to move and uranium mining has caused human illness. For us, the uranium is not anything good as it is for authorities, companies and people in Europe.
- For us it is a negative energy force, which also creates terrible weapons, Marius Paul says.
- We would need the whole world to look at these problems, but the major economic forces that are moving are more powerful, Marius says before he drives the bus back north from the festivities in Meadow Lake, to the reserve Patunak outside Beaval.