Open pit mine Le Bosc near Lodève (Hérault, France)Comment: Why we are publishing such an old article? Well, there will be a series of articles about the past uranium mining in France and Canada. We will examine France and Canada’s weather with Virginia's weather. We will examine the pollution problems of modern uranium mining in Canada and Australian! The Nuke bunch are talking up modern uranium mining, how it is safely regulated by the NRC(mill not mine) and EPA and we will prove the continue problems of uranium mining all over the world! Virginia will regulate the mines, sortof like they regulate Mt. Top Removal!
published by WISE News Communique on January 31, 1992
Recently, uranium wastes in France have been receiving more and more attention in the media. Among some of the headlines: "Many uranium mill tailings deposits found to be illegal"; "200,000 nuclear waste casks found in mined-out uranium mines"; "severe contamination of the environment with transport of uranium ores and uranium mill tailings".
(366.3595) WISE Amsterdam - With the ending of uranium mining in eastern Germany, France has become the largest producer of uranium in Europe (without taking the former USSR into account). France produces about one half of its reactor-related uranium needs from domestic mines, in addition to the uranium needed for nuclear weapons. The highest production was attained in 1988 with 3,394 tonnes of uranium. Since then, there has been a slight decrease.1 Uneconomic mines are being closed now due to the low uranium world market prices, and production is concentrated at higher grade deposits. Until now, the largest uranium mining province in France has been located in the northwest corner of the Massif Central mountains north of Limoges. Mining in this region is to be totally closed down by 1996.
So far, uranium mining in France has been carried out with little interference. Protests were often raised when the opening up of new mines were proposed, but the mines received no more attention once mining operations began. As no new mines were opened over the past few years, protests stopped completely. Thus the environmental problems related to mining activities, the milling of the ore and especially the uranium mill tailings deposits went unnoticed for a long time. But a half year ago, the situation changed dramatically.
The change was initiated by the independent radiation monitoring group Commission de Recherche d'Information Independente sur la Radioactivite (CRII-Rad). CRII-Rad discovered in a statement by Cogema (a state-owned company and the main uranium producer in France) that several uranium mill tailings deposits in the Limoges area contain more than 1000 Curie (37 TeraBequerels, i.e. 37 trillion Bq) of radium-226 and thus should have been licensed as basic nuclear installations. That implies elaboration of an environmental assessment report and public participation during the licensing procedure. Moreover, a July 1991 report by a government commission (Commission Desgraupes) on nuclear wastes in France revealed that several other uranium mill deposits in France go beyond the 1000 Curie limit and are thus being operated illegally.2
In November 1991, Cogema published a report on the nuclear waste deposits at all of its sites. According to that report, 18,048 casks containing low-level nuclear waste from the uranium enrichment plant at Pierrelatte in the Rhône Valley have been deposited at the Brugeaud site at Bessines near Limoges, and 176,150 allegedly empty radioactively contaminated casks have been deposited in the mined-out open pit of the Margnac uranium mine, also near Limoges.3 Deposits of scrap and wastes were recently discovered there as well. Cogema secretly, under cover of night, had these wastes covered with earth. When called to account by journalists for this, Cogema stated that the lorry driver involved had wanted to work at night for family reasons.4
The Bessines uranium mill, which is operated by the Cogema subsidiary SIMO, has produced a total of 25,046 tonnes of uranium since 1958 (up to 1990). Some part of this uranium (934 tonnes) was produced by piling low grade ores in large heaps, where the uranium was recovered using the "heap-leaching" method. All uranium production (until 1990) at Bessines resulted in the production of 19.86 million tonnes of radioactive sludges and wastes which were dumped on the mill site and in the surrounding area. 3 The Bessines mill also processed the last of around 5000 tonnes of uranium ore that were left over from the shut down of the Menzenschwand uranium mine in the southern Black Forest in western Germany. (This ore could no longer be processed in the West German Ellweiler uranium mill because it had been closed for environmental reasons.)
The management practices involved in the transport of the uranium mill tailings from the Bessines mill to the deposit over a distance of 3 km has also become a matter of discussion. The sludges are not transported on tank trucks, but on ordinary trucks. This has resulted in significant contamination of the roads used, as well as of the adjacent grounds, as recently proved by CRII-Rad measurements. One of the victims of these practices is Madame Gorbi, whose house is located on the transport route and is continuously spattered with the radiating sludges. Her struggle has been well publicized. Now the environmental organization FLEPNA has taken up the issue and is suing Cogema.
Recently, the disposal of the radioactive uranium mill tailings itself has become a matter of concern for French environmental organizations. A visit to Limoges on 18 January 1992 made it painfully clear that the sludges are simply dumped in mined-out open pit mines without any special protective measures being taken. Thus they present a significant long-term hazard to ground water. Presently the sludges from the Bessines mill are transported to the open pit at Bellezane. Other open pit mines have already been filled with the sludges. The last of these was the pit mine at Montmassacrot. Some part of the sludges is dumped in tailings ponds at the sites of former open pit uranium mines, e.g. at the Brugeaud site at Bessines. There the sludge is covered with water to lower the radon emissions, but this technique causes an increased risk of groundwater contamination due to water seepage.
In addition to all the concerns mentioned above, Cogema management practices in regard to "waste rock" need special attention: cement plants are located in the immediate vicinity of the uranium mine shafts. The plants treat the waste rock for eventual use in road construction. In this way, materials with low-level radiation are dispersed all over the country.
Literature
OECD Nuclear Energy Agency/ International Atomic Energy Agency: Uranium Resources, Production and Demand 1989, Paris 1990.
Info Uranium, No.53, Nov.-Dec. 1991, p.16-17.
"Cogema: Dossier d'information, Sites miniers Cogema et stockage de résidus et stériles", Nov. 1991.
"La décharge de Margnac alimente encore la défiance"; Le Populaire du Centre, 16 Jan. 1992.
Source: Citizen Committee Against Uranium Mining in the Southern Black Forest, 23 Jan. 1992.
Contacts: Peter Diehl, Citizen Committee Against Uranium Mining in the Southern Black Forest, Schulstr.13, W-7881 Herrischried, FRG; tel and fax: 49-7764-1034
CRII-Rad Marche Limousin, Martine Deguillaume, Beaulieu, F-87470 Peyrat-le-Chateau, France; tel: 33-55-69 46 06.
http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/index.html?http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/366/3595.html
published by WISE News Communique on January 31, 1992
Recently, uranium wastes in France have been receiving more and more attention in the media. Among some of the headlines: "Many uranium mill tailings deposits found to be illegal"; "200,000 nuclear waste casks found in mined-out uranium mines"; "severe contamination of the environment with transport of uranium ores and uranium mill tailings".
(366.3595) WISE Amsterdam - With the ending of uranium mining in eastern Germany, France has become the largest producer of uranium in Europe (without taking the former USSR into account). France produces about one half of its reactor-related uranium needs from domestic mines, in addition to the uranium needed for nuclear weapons. The highest production was attained in 1988 with 3,394 tonnes of uranium. Since then, there has been a slight decrease.1 Uneconomic mines are being closed now due to the low uranium world market prices, and production is concentrated at higher grade deposits. Until now, the largest uranium mining province in France has been located in the northwest corner of the Massif Central mountains north of Limoges. Mining in this region is to be totally closed down by 1996.
So far, uranium mining in France has been carried out with little interference. Protests were often raised when the opening up of new mines were proposed, but the mines received no more attention once mining operations began. As no new mines were opened over the past few years, protests stopped completely. Thus the environmental problems related to mining activities, the milling of the ore and especially the uranium mill tailings deposits went unnoticed for a long time. But a half year ago, the situation changed dramatically.
The change was initiated by the independent radiation monitoring group Commission de Recherche d'Information Independente sur la Radioactivite (CRII-Rad). CRII-Rad discovered in a statement by Cogema (a state-owned company and the main uranium producer in France) that several uranium mill tailings deposits in the Limoges area contain more than 1000 Curie (37 TeraBequerels, i.e. 37 trillion Bq) of radium-226 and thus should have been licensed as basic nuclear installations. That implies elaboration of an environmental assessment report and public participation during the licensing procedure. Moreover, a July 1991 report by a government commission (Commission Desgraupes) on nuclear wastes in France revealed that several other uranium mill deposits in France go beyond the 1000 Curie limit and are thus being operated illegally.2
In November 1991, Cogema published a report on the nuclear waste deposits at all of its sites. According to that report, 18,048 casks containing low-level nuclear waste from the uranium enrichment plant at Pierrelatte in the Rhône Valley have been deposited at the Brugeaud site at Bessines near Limoges, and 176,150 allegedly empty radioactively contaminated casks have been deposited in the mined-out open pit of the Margnac uranium mine, also near Limoges.3 Deposits of scrap and wastes were recently discovered there as well. Cogema secretly, under cover of night, had these wastes covered with earth. When called to account by journalists for this, Cogema stated that the lorry driver involved had wanted to work at night for family reasons.4
The Bessines uranium mill, which is operated by the Cogema subsidiary SIMO, has produced a total of 25,046 tonnes of uranium since 1958 (up to 1990). Some part of this uranium (934 tonnes) was produced by piling low grade ores in large heaps, where the uranium was recovered using the "heap-leaching" method. All uranium production (until 1990) at Bessines resulted in the production of 19.86 million tonnes of radioactive sludges and wastes which were dumped on the mill site and in the surrounding area. 3 The Bessines mill also processed the last of around 5000 tonnes of uranium ore that were left over from the shut down of the Menzenschwand uranium mine in the southern Black Forest in western Germany. (This ore could no longer be processed in the West German Ellweiler uranium mill because it had been closed for environmental reasons.)
The management practices involved in the transport of the uranium mill tailings from the Bessines mill to the deposit over a distance of 3 km has also become a matter of discussion. The sludges are not transported on tank trucks, but on ordinary trucks. This has resulted in significant contamination of the roads used, as well as of the adjacent grounds, as recently proved by CRII-Rad measurements. One of the victims of these practices is Madame Gorbi, whose house is located on the transport route and is continuously spattered with the radiating sludges. Her struggle has been well publicized. Now the environmental organization FLEPNA has taken up the issue and is suing Cogema.
Recently, the disposal of the radioactive uranium mill tailings itself has become a matter of concern for French environmental organizations. A visit to Limoges on 18 January 1992 made it painfully clear that the sludges are simply dumped in mined-out open pit mines without any special protective measures being taken. Thus they present a significant long-term hazard to ground water. Presently the sludges from the Bessines mill are transported to the open pit at Bellezane. Other open pit mines have already been filled with the sludges. The last of these was the pit mine at Montmassacrot. Some part of the sludges is dumped in tailings ponds at the sites of former open pit uranium mines, e.g. at the Brugeaud site at Bessines. There the sludge is covered with water to lower the radon emissions, but this technique causes an increased risk of groundwater contamination due to water seepage.
In addition to all the concerns mentioned above, Cogema management practices in regard to "waste rock" need special attention: cement plants are located in the immediate vicinity of the uranium mine shafts. The plants treat the waste rock for eventual use in road construction. In this way, materials with low-level radiation are dispersed all over the country.
Literature
OECD Nuclear Energy Agency/ International Atomic Energy Agency: Uranium Resources, Production and Demand 1989, Paris 1990.
Info Uranium, No.53, Nov.-Dec. 1991, p.16-17.
"Cogema: Dossier d'information, Sites miniers Cogema et stockage de résidus et stériles", Nov. 1991.
"La décharge de Margnac alimente encore la défiance"; Le Populaire du Centre, 16 Jan. 1992.
Source: Citizen Committee Against Uranium Mining in the Southern Black Forest, 23 Jan. 1992.
Contacts: Peter Diehl, Citizen Committee Against Uranium Mining in the Southern Black Forest, Schulstr.13, W-7881 Herrischried, FRG; tel and fax: 49-7764-1034
CRII-Rad Marche Limousin, Martine Deguillaume, Beaulieu, F-87470 Peyrat-le-Chateau, France; tel: 33-55-69 46 06.
http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/index.html?http://www10.antenna.nl/wise/366/3595.html
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