uranium mine spill

["Thomas J Savin " <tjsav@LYCOS.COM>]

Does the US use in situ mining? Anyway this may be of interest to some - Tom



JANUARY 23, 09:42 ET 

Australia Probes Radioactive Spills 



By EMMA TINKLER 

Associated Press Writer 



SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Officials investigating a large spill of radioactive waste at a uranium mine in the Australian outback found there have been 24 other leaks at the site. 



Details of the leaks, which were not publicly disclosed at the time, have prompted the South Australian state government to review reporting procedures of all such spills, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The officials said the leaks were not considered harmful to the public. 



Earlier this month, some 15,600 gallons of radioactive fluid leaked from a pipe at the Beverley uranium mine, 370 miles north of the state capital, Adelaide. The spill was not publicly disclosed until more than 24 hours later. 



Mine operator, Heathgate Resources, said the liquid was composed of salty ground water, sulfuric acid, uranium and oxygen and was ``naturally radioactive.'' A spokesman, Stephen Middleton, said the spill was contained in a drain surrounding the complex and had posed no threat to the environment, the public or mine workers. 



The Jan. 11 spill brought calls from environmentalists for the closure of the mine, located in an isolated, sparsely populated desert area. 



A full report into the spill and conditions under which the Beverley mine could resume commercial operations would be released later this week, said a spokeswoman for the South Australia state mines minister. 



Investigations after the spill found there have been 24 other leaks at the mine over the last two years, three of which were listed as more than 520 gallons, government officials said. All the spills were considered minor and were not harmful to the public. 



Heathgate Resources, a subsidiary of the San Diego-based General Atomics, underlined that the spills caused no environmental damage. 



``People are making great issue that there were 24 spills but they had no environmental or occupational health and safety consequences. It's unnecessarily alarmed a large number of people,'' Heathgate vice president Stephen Middleton told The Associated Press. 



But concerned that the leaks went little noticed for so long, the state government will review the system for reporting radioactive spills at uranium mines, said a spokeswoman for state Mines Minister Wayne Matthew. 



Heathgate Resources fulfilled its obligations by informing mines inspectors of the leaks, Middleton said. 



The mines ministry said the rules should be revised to require that more senior officials be notified. 



Under the current system, ``we have technical experts who assess the level or risk from any incidents, but it's the government's view that ministers also need to be advised every time there is one of these incidents,'' the spokeswoman said. 



Heathgate Resources welcomed the review of reporting procedures, which it said are ``severe in the extreme.'' 



``We believe that a better solution might be to establish a reporting procedure that classifies spills not only on the numbers and the size of them but on the environmental consequences,'' Middleton said. 



Environmental groups said the spills pose dangers to workers and the underground water supply and have called for the mine to be closed. 



Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said the technique used at the mine, known as in situ leach or ISL and involving pumping acid underground, was not approved in any other of the major industrialized nations and had in the past caused serious pollution in eastern Europe. 



``The Beverley mine is fundamentally unsustainable both in the product it's mining and the way it's doing it,'' Sweeney told The Associated Press. 

 







 



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Tom Savin





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