Decommissioning of a Former Uranium Mine and Mill in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

The Cluff Lake Project is a former uranium mine and mill in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Over 60 million pounds of uranium concentrate were produced in just over twenty years of operation, ending in 2002. The Project is owned and operated by AREVA Resources Canada Inc., part of the AREVA Group, the world leader in nuclear energy development, and increasingly, a provider of other forms of electricity generation systems with low CO₂ emissions. During operation, the facilities at the Cluff Lake Project included open-pit and underground mines, a mill, a tailings management area (TMA) with a two-stage liquid effluent treatment system, a residential camp area and various other support and site infrastructure facilities.

Decommissioning when operations have concluded is both an AREVA Group corporate commitment and a regulatory requirement. The purpose is to conduct all necessary activities including the removal or stabilization of all constructed structures and the reclamation of disturbed areas to meet the following objectives:

• Environment is safe for non-human biota and human use;
• Long-term adverse effects are minimized;
• Reclaimed landscape is self-sustaining; and,
• Restrictions on future land use are minimized.

In addition, any restrictions on land use should not prevent traditional land use including casual access for trapping, hunting, and fishing as the primary site activities.

The Cluff Lake decommissioning project has four major stages which include planning, physical decommissioning activities, post-decommissioning and follow-up monitoring, and transfer of the site to the Provincial Institutional Control Program (ICP).