The Gunnar Legacy Uranium Mine has been vacated in northern Saskatchewan for more than 50 years. And Saskatchewan Research Council Vice President of Environment Joe Muldoon says the company abandoning the site near Uranium City, Gunnar Mining Limited, left the site in 1964 with little to no cleanup or decommissioning. However, the SRC has recently gained approval to start cleanup of the largest portion of the site, the three mine tailings deposits. The SRC was appointed to oversee the cleanup of the site by the Saskatchewan government when they took over responsibility. They needed to prove to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission that they would be able to clean up the site to environment regulations, and the hold on the tailings deposits, which cover about 70 hectares, was removed on Friday. Muldoon says that is a major step forward for the process, as they will now enter the procurement process.
They hope to have a contractor by the start of May, which is when they can begin cleanup on the tailings. Muldoon says in their design plan, the contractor would be on site from May to October or November each year for 3-4 years before the site is completely cleaned. He says the site has been untouched for a number of decades. However, he says it is important when moving equipment on site to utilize that expertise and clean it up in the most cost-effective way possible. Muldoon adds that they will need to get the site into a condition where any kind of water or precipitation running through does not pick up a lot of contaminants, a cover would be put over the tailings, they would be re-vegetated, and they would continue to monitor the site over a number of years. He says they will work on getting approval to clean up the other three portions of the former uranium mine ... the waste rock from mining activities, debris from the buildings that were demolished in 2010, and the pit where the early mining was conducted.
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