Safety Assessment of Uranium Mill Tailings: The National Uranium Tailings Program

Abstract

Safe long-term disposal of uranium mill tailings in Canada requires that decisions be made on the acceptability of future effects on the environment and man. The National Uranium Tailings Program has the task of pulling together the scientific understanding of long-term behaviour and developing a methodology t o predict the long-term effects of tailings and thus provide a sound basis for these decisions. This paper describes the Program and presents results from the first phase of the system model development work.