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Nova Scotians rally outside Environment Minister Tim Halman’s office to protest uranium mining
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Regardless of how uranium is extracted from rock (either through in-situ leaching or mining), the processes leave behind radioactive waste.”
In a March 13 article for the Halifax Examiner, Joan Baxter wrote:
In-situ leaching, (Dr. Steven) Emerman explained, involves injecting solvents into the uranium deposit to dissolve it, after which that “pregnant solution” is pumped to the surface where the commodity is extracted. The solvent, which often contains sulphuric acid, is then re-injected. Emerman said there are many problems with this method, even if – as MANS (Mining Association of Nova Scotia) says – it doesn’t leave tailings or cause as much surface disruption.
First, he said, the solvent will leach all kinds of other elements in addition to the uranium – some of them highly toxic, such as arsenic. Secondly, according to Emerman, there is a high risk of the solution spreading and contaminating groundwater so that “uranium may appear in someone’s well.”
Also, Emerman said, the recovery rate of the uranium is just 60% or 70% at most, and the uranium left in the ground after the mining operation is going to lead to groundwater contamination.
Emerson has no patience with the kind of talk he is hearing these days from the mining industry, which would have the public believe that mining is “nature positive” and that it can “leave nature better than it was.”
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