From: Max Finkelstein [dowfink@rogers.com] Sent: December 2, 2008 8:13 PM To: lpayette@nirb.ca Subject: Uravan apploication December 2, 2008 Dear Sir or Madam: I am writing in regards to the Uravan application. During the winter of 2006/2007 I was involved in a hard-fought campaign against proposed permits for exploratory drilling in the upper Thelon River valley for uranium. The Thelon Basin is considered one of the earth's last pristine wildernesses. Residents from the community of Lutsel K'e, on the shores of Great Slave Lake, describe the area as "the place where God began" and "the heart and soul of the Dene." The Thelon is designated as a Canadian Heritage River from its confluence with the Hanbury River to the community of Baker Lake. The Thelon also flows through the Thelon Game Sanctuary, split between N.W.T. and Nunavut, and one of the largest protected areas in Canada. The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board recommended in May, 2007, outright rejection of UR-Energy's proposal to proceed with drilling in the upper Thelon valley. The reason cited is “adverse cultural impacts of a cumulative nature to areas of very high spiritual importance to Aboriginal peoples.” One has to ask oneself if the land proposed for the Uravan application is any less sacred. Hundreds of thousands of caribou bear their young in the area (or at least hundreds of thousands used to, as recent surveys show a dramatic drop in the size of the Beverley Caribou Herd). Musk oxen, recently recovered from the brink of extinction, grizzly bears and wolves still roam.....it is a pristine land that is as close to the Pleistocene, or as close to the way God made it, as any in the world. We, as a nation, needs energy..but at what cost? The environmental impacts of uranium mining and milling are so severe that many jurisdictions around the world, including the province of nova Scotia, have banned the establishment of new uranium mines. Nunavut used to be one of these jurisdictions, but no more. The Indigenous World Uranium Summit held in Window Rock, Arizona, in 2006, was a vindication of the Navajo Nations' ban on uranium mining in their territory and a regrouping of Indigenous opposition to uranium mining globally. Canada, as the world’s leading uranium producer, does not have a good track record as far as making a case for benign environmental impacts of mining. One legacy of uranium mining in Canada is hundred of millions of tons of radioactive tailings with high concentrations of heavy metals, so hazardous that they require perpetual care. In addition, uranium mining operations are a significant source of air pollution. During uranium exploration and mining, radon gas from deep underground is released into the air, and dissolved in surface waters. When radon gas is released from a uranium mine, it deposits solid radioactive fallout for hundreds of miles downwind from the mine site. In northern Saskatchewan, radioactive materials are taken up by lichens that are then eaten by caribou, which in turn are eaten by people. Research on eating caribou in the Wollaston Lake area of northern Saskatchewan showed an increase in the chance of developing cancer that far exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency range of acceptable cancer risk. (Fact Sheet No. 2, The Pembina Institute, May, 2007) . When it comes to water and rivers, uranium mines have left behind groundwater contaminated with radioactive waste and heavy metals that is impossible to remediate. Fish in waters receiving runoff from uranium mines have heavy metals in concentrations up to 43 times higher than normal (Pembina Institute Fact Sheet #2). The Uravan project lies in the heart of the calving grounds for the Beverley Caribou Herd. The caribou travel thousands of miles to bear their young in this area because for them, it is an area safe from predators. If caribou have spirituality, (and in some way they surely do) this would be a sacred area. Caribou in many ways epitomize the values of Canada's northern lands - freedom to travel on the land, timeless traditions, a connection with the land, a land, the last land, where a caribou or a human can travel thousands of miles without crossing a fence or a road. But as the Beverley Caribou is clearly declining, development of uranium mining may the final bullet, the final spear. What values do we, as Canadians, as stewards of our lands, hold most closely to our hearts, and to our identity as a people and a nation. To know that the caribou, the land, and our connections to it as people, are safeguarded for our children and our children's children, then no matter how high uranium prices soar, our hearts would surely soar higher. Please do not support the Uravan application. Max Finkelstein 487 Edison Ave. Ottawa, ON K2A 1V1 613-729-4004