Recent Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission decision involving Cameco Corp’s Key Lake uranium mill given short shrift by StarPhoenix and Leader-Post

The Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post shortchanged its reader’s in failing to provide adequate coverage of a decision by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) involving Cameco Corporation’s Key Lake uranium mill.

The meagre four sentence news brief that appeared in each newspaper on March 24, 2007, were identical and appeared to have been based on a Canadian Press wire story that drew its information from a March 22, 2007, CNSC press release.

The newspaper articles did not provide any background information or elaborate further on the Commission’s ruling.

The CNSC ordered “Cameco Corporation to implement a three-phase action plan for the control and reduction of the selenium and molybdenum releases to the environment.”

The decision to amend Cameco's licence followed a one-day public hearing on January 25, 2007, in Ottawa.

According to the Commission’s 18-page Record of Proceedings, Including Reasons for Decision on the matter:

“Based on its study of cumulative effects of the present operations, CNSC staff concluded that the release of the effluent to the David Creek system was causing an unreasonable risk to the environment, and that Cameco had not taken all reasonable precautions to protect the environment in accordance with subsections 12(1)(c) and 12(1)(f) of the General Nuclear Safety and Control Regulations.

CNSC staff addressed the issues of reduced storage capacity due to sloughing and elevated concentrations of molybdenum and selenium in the mill effluent and their environmental impact in the evaluation of this program area. CNSC staff thus informed the Commission on a causal link that had been found between abnormal fish development and current selenium level in the drainage system. The concentration of selenium accumulated in the sediments and animals had been found to pose an unreasonable environmental risk and could be a public health risk, according to CNSC staff.

CNSC staff stated that ecologically-based water quality performance objectives were necessary for selenium and molybdenum to establish regulatory performance targets in order to increase the likelihood that operational controls will limit the risk to the environment to an acceptable level. The licensee, however, was initially of the opinion that regulatory limits were not the necessary regulatory instrument to achieve environmental improvements in Key Lake mill effluents. Consequently, CNSC staff requested Cameco to submit an action plan for the limitation of risk to the environment from the release of selenium and molybdenum from the Key Lake mill effluent system. In response to this request, Cameco had proposed a three-phased action plan acceptable to CNSC staff.

CNSC staff concluded that Cameco’s Action Plan entitled Key Lake Operation – Action Plan for Selenium and Molybdenum would meet the intent of the condition 5.4 of the current operating licence regarding the reduction of the molybdenum in the mill effluent. To ensure the implementation of this plan, CNSC staff recommended the Commission to approve the amendment of the licence condition regarding the limits to the environmental risk caused by release of the molybdenum and selenium.”

At its January 25 hearing the Commission considered written submissions and oral presentations from Cameco Corporation, CNSC staff and five intervenors one of which was Marion Penna of Saskatoon.

The Record of Proceedings shows the intervenors “Expressed concerns with discharge limits and elevated concentrations of molybdenum and selenium.”

Ms. Penna later submitted a letter to the editor of The StarPhoenix. It was published on April 9, 2007, and appears below along with the StarPhoenix and Leader-Post articles from March 24, 2007.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

- The March 22, 2007, CNSC news release is available here.
- The CNSC 18-page Record of Proceedings is available here.
- The agenda for the January 25, 2007, CNSC hearing is available here.
- The hearing transcript is available here.


Nuclear industry coverage in SP needs more balance

The StarPhoenix

Monday, April 09, 2007

During the early development of uranium mines, probing questions were asked, cartoons printed and spills reported in The SP. Now we constantly get one-sided articles and front page headlines advocating uranium mining and nuclear power.

When Cameco is ordered to reduce releases of toxic selenium and molybdenum, only four sentences appear as a "brief" item. Where is the full story? Did anyone at The SP read the document that led up to this Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission decision? In it, CNSC cites a report of "observed harm to lake bottom aquatic invertebrates and young northern pike in the near field (two kilometers) and harm to young northern pike .... and to some aquatic mammals and birds as far as 10 km down stream to Delta Lake.

"These impacts are greater in magnitude and spatial extent than forecast in the 1995 environmental predictions." It also reports other problems. The Gaertner special waste and Dielmann tailings pits are failing. There is "significant sloughing," buttressing is required to stabilize "unstable pit walls," and "bentonite containment systems" in ore storage and two special waste areas "were defective." As well, aging infrastructure has caused several spills from a groundwater dewatering system.

According to CNSC, at Key Lake, Cameco's "waste management subprogram implementation is below requirements." Focus on reducing selenium and molybdenum is not only about environmental dangers.

Cameco's plan to "import recyclable products" (wastes containing selenium and molybdenum) from its Blind River and Port Hope refineries cannot proceed until these elements are reduced in the milling process.

Nuclear waste from Ontario will be transported through Saskatoon, milled and dumped into malfunctioning waste pits at Key Lake. There is a lot more to this story than a mere four sentences. The public deserves to know the full story.

Marion Penna
Saskatoon

©The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007

Board orders Cameco to control emissions

The StarPhoenix

Saturday, March 24, 2007

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has ordered Cameco Corp. to reduce releases of selenium and molybdenum from its Key Lake uranium mill. This decision to amend Cameco's licence followed a one-day public hearing in January in Ottawa.

The licence now requires Cameco to "implement a three-phase action plan" which will be monitored by commission staff, the regulator said Friday.

The revised licence "will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security and measures required to implement international obligations to which Canada has agreed."

©The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007

Cameco told to cut releases

Canadian Press

Saturday, March 24, 2007

OTTAWA (CP) -- The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has ordered Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO) to reduce releases of selenium and molybdenum from its Key Lake uranium mill.

This decision to amend Cameco's licence followed a one-day public hearing in January in Ottawa.

The licence now requires Cameco to "implement a three-phase action plan" which will be monitored by commission staff, the regulator said Friday.

The revised licence "will make adequate provision for the protection of the environment, the health and safety of persons, and the maintenance of national security and measures required to implement international obligations to which Canada has agreed."

©The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007