Cameco, the Saskatchewan uranium producer, recently had its knuckles rapped for spilling radioactive waste at the Rabbit Lake mine. In late December, 1.9 million litres of radioactive water spilled from a pipeline. The leak went undetected for nearly 17 hours. The company got off easy. It was fined the $5,000 maximum under the penalty guidelines of the ancient Uranium and Thorium Mining Regulations. (The mine manager, please note, lost his job.)
The significance here is not in the fine itself but in the more muscular tone set by the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB). The very fact that this is the first AECB prosecution of a uranium mine licencee in recent memory might signal a renewed emphasis by the board on policing uranium producers. More explicitly, one news report quoted an unnamed AECB official as saying “(I)t’s time we acted to end operator complacence.” That’s not the customary emanation from the AECB.
The board is also letting it be known that the maximum $5,000 penalty, set way back in 1946, is low. In Saskatchewan, environmental legislation has teeth. And Cameco may yet feel the bite. It has been charged by the province’s justice department under the toughened Environmental Management and Protection Act of 1988-89. The maximum provincial fine is $1 million. Weigh that against the federal agency’s $5,000 fine limit and guess what legislation uranium producers can expect real soon.
On a different note, I would like to mention that our Technical Editor Patrick Whiteway has won a writing award from our new owner, the Southam Business Information and Communications Group. Mr. Whiteway’s mine visit article on the East Kemptville tin mine won kudos from a panel of judges, landing him an honorable mention in the technical writing category.
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