From: Terri-Ann Bugg [terribugg@gmail.com]
Sent: January 12, 2009 11:52 AM
To: lpayette@nirb.ca
Subject: Uravan Garry Lake Project, NIRB File 08EN037

Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Red

Dear Nunavut Impact Review Board Members:

I am writing in opposition to the recent uranium mineral exploration project proposels on the Beverly calving ground in Nunavut.  I urge the Review Board to carefully consider the sensitve and mutifaceted nature of the issues surrounding uranium mining ventures and impending effects on the Inuit people of Nunavut and the caribou populations whom indigenous peoples in the area depend on traditionally and spiritually.  I demand that the Review Board reject Uravan Minerals Inc. application (Garry Lake Project NIRB File #08EN037) to expand exploration activities for uranium in the core Beverly caribou calving ground northwest of the community of Baker Lake.  The application should be rejected on the following basis:


1) Nuclear power is not "clean energy"

The driving force behind the nuclear renaissance is a claim that nuclear power is a carbon-free energy source. It is assumed that nuclear power creates no greenhouse gases and thus contributes nothing to global warming.  However, the claim ignores the total environmental impact of nuclear energy, a long and complicated chain of events known in the industry as the "nuclear cycle." The cycle begins with finding, mining, milling, and enriching uranium, then spans through plant construction and power generation to the reprocessing and eventual storage of nuclear waste, all of which creates considerable CO2. At every stage of the cycle greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere from manufacturing steel and cement, burning diesel, and, in the circumpolar regions of the planet, by disturbance of the tundra, which releases huge amounts of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.





2) The environmental impact of nuclear power is significant, with high long-term risks to the Inuit people and traditional livelihoods. 



Significant dangers are associated with the generation of the nuclear power cycle. Including potential radionuclide spills permanently poisoning the drinking water of caribou and Inuit and potential contamination effects on entire ecosystems that

would last for thousands of years.  



Some of the world's largest public-health catastrophes have occurred near Canadian uranium mines (Dowie, 2009). For example Elliot Lake, north of Lake Huron, where uranium mining began in 1955. Home of the Serpent River First Nation of the Anishinaabeg people, the Elliot Lake area once hosted eleven uranium mines -- eight of them owned by Rio Algom, a subsidiary of the giant Rio Tinto company of England -- as well as a one-product chemical plant that made sulfuric acid to leach uranium from its ore.  In 1975 a power failure at one mine caused a 500,000-gallon radionuclide spill into McCabe Lake. In the years that followed, other mines flooded and were closed down. By 1990 the entire area, including at least ten major lakes, was permanently contaminated with radioactive mining effluvia, 165 million tons of it. The hunting, fishing, and gathering grounds of the Serpent River Anishinaabeg were lost forever, and fifty-five miles of the once pure and bucolic Serpent River waterway was turned into a massive dead zone. As a direct consequence of the spills, a thriving native community of over twenty-five thousand aboriginals has since declined to fewer than one hundred.





3) The environmental impact of nuclear power is significant, with high long-term risks to the Beverly caribou herd and its traditional range. 



The Beverly caribou herd migrates each year from its winter range in northern Saskatchewan, through the Northwest Territories to the calving ground in Nunavut. The Inuit people living along the Thelon River and surrounding Baker Lake have thrived side by side with the Beverly herd for thousands of years.

According to the Government of the Northwest Territories, results of 2007 and 2008 surveys of Beverly caribou indicate that the Beverly caribou herd has experienced a significant decrease.  However, the 2007 and 2008 surveys did not provide an estimate of the total size of the herd.  The last population census was conducted in 1994.  The extent of the decrease in the Beverly herd is unknown but likely results from a combination of natural factors and impacts from human activities. What is clear is that we should not allow activities that will cause additional stress to the Beverly herd while the population is in such a vulnerable state. This means that mineral exploration should not be allowed on the Beverly caribou calving ground. 


Thank you for considering this letter. As a concerned citizen born and raised in the Canadian North, I urge the Review Board to place priority on the long-term well being of the Inuit people and the inevitable environmental consequences to sensitive northern ecosystems over the short-term economic gains of uranium mines that are majority owned by southern people who do not represent the northern people.  I urge the Review Board to reject Uravan Minerals application.

Sincerely, 

Terri Bugg