Long-Term Effects of Uranium Tailings on Canadian Surface Waters

Abstract

The Federal Government established the National Uranium Tailings Program in 1982. In March 1987 the NUTP completed its five-year program. The major objective has been to provide an information base to assist government, regulatory agencies and industry to establish long-term management strategies for the protection of the environment. The most important outcome has been the development of a probabilistic, predictive model, which will allow the comparison of long-term implications of different strategies. To develop this model required a fundamental under standing of the principles involved in contaminant migration from tailings. The NUT Program was subdivided into three sections, Modelling, Measurements, and Disposal Technology. However, projects done in each of these sectors have overlapped with one another, and the Program was run as an integrated system. This paper gives an overview of the results of this program, especially the results of the first application of the mathematical model. In 1981, after a year long study, the National Technical Planning Group on uranium tailings research, under the direction of Phil Lapp, concluded that there was not enough scientific data to predict confidently the long- term effects of uranium tailings on the environment. This group of experts, appointed by the department of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada recommended that a research program be conducted to fill the knowledge gap. The government of Canada responded to this recommendation by announcing in 1982, the formation of National Uranium Tailings Program (NUTP). This was a five year research program which ended in March 19B7, and received a total of about 8.5 million dollars in funds to study the ways to predict the effects on the environment of uranium mill tailings over the long - term. All of the research work for the NUTP was conducted under contract by the private sector. In approximately four and a half years the NUTP staff have placed about 90 contracts. Reports are, or will soon, be available (Appendix A) for all of this work.