[ RadSafe ] " Mine created Village of Widows "

[Jaro]

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=4c1b3720-8
4ff-4251-ab3f-b7a240ee764f
Mine created Village of Widows
Uranium mining at Port Radium ended in 1960. Residents believe the ore is to
blame for its high cancer rate
BOB WEBER 
CP, February 6, 2005

Photo:
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/mtgz/20050206/4
7834-14958.jpg
CREDIT: CP 
COURTESY OF CANADA-DELINE-URANIUM TABLE / Dene men from Deline and Port
Radium, N.W.T., hauled tonnes of radioactive ore from the mine and
sometimes, during the long barge trip south, slept on those same sacks.
 

The dark, nuclear shadow over Irene Betsidea's childhood is finally lifting.
The memories should be happy ones. The peaceful shores of Great Bear Lake.
The harmonious community of Port Radium built around a government-owned
mine. Plenty of friends both Dene and white.
But then Betsidea learned the dusty gunnysacks she and her sister played
with had once been full of radioactive uranium ore, that the sandbox she dug
in was filled with ground-up mine tailings.
Then her father, who used to barge that ore down the Mackenzie River to
nuclear programs in the United States and Canada, died of cancer. Her
sister, her aunts and her cousins met the same fate.
Finally, her new home of Deline, N.W.T., across the lake on the ore
transport route, lost so many of its men to the same disease it became known
as the Village of Widows.
Ever since, those childhood memories have been tainted.
"The miners, they were really nice to us," said Betsidea, 52. "But why
didn't they tell us about the danger?"

A report due this spring will outline options for healing the land. Closing
the mine's entrances and removing the tailings could cost up to $10 million.

But how long it will take to heal the nuclear shadow over the people is
anyone's guess - even after four years of health education and efforts to
rebuild a culture that lost many of its elders.

"We have people that have passed away from cancer for years and
automatically the workers link it to that site," said Danny Gaudet, the
community's negotiating representative.
"Because of that, there's always this lingering fear."

Uranium mining at Port Radium dates back to 1942,when the U.S. government
needed the ore for weapons development. Atomic bombs containing some Port
Radium uranium were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in the Second
World War.
[[ curious -- how does one mine radium without mining uranium ? ....wasn't
Port Radium named after the mineral that was mined there long before 1942 ?
....in fact, wasn't the mine already abandoned before 1942, because the
price of radium dropped and the mine couldn't remain competitive ? ]]

Over the next 18 years, Dene from both Deline and Port Radium hauled tonnes
of radioactive ore from the mine. They would throw 45-kilogram sacks over
their backs and, sometimes, during the long barge trip south, they slept on
those same sacks.
Families breathed the mine's dust and fished from waters contaminated by its
tailings. Children visited the mine on school trips.
Uranium mining at Port Radium stopped in 1960.
Since then, at least 14 former ore carriers have died of cancer. Most of
Deline's residents believe the mine is at least partly responsible for many
other deaths.
[[ wonder if any of that includes lung cancer due to smoking ? .....its
unfortunate that even today, aboriginal communities ignore the risks of
smoking -- many millions of dollars worth of cigarettes were smuggled into
Canada across Indian reservations straddling the border... people *have*
been warned about the risks -- but do they care ? ]]

Gaudet estimates cancer kills someone in his tightly knit village of 650
nearly every six months and has done so for two decades.
"There's no chance to even grieve for a family member before the next one
passes away," he said. "You've got over 30 women who are all widows. They've
lost their husbands to cancer.
"When you need the elderly men to be involved in conducting cultural
activities, they're nowhere to be found."
[[ people who worked for the mines in the 40's would be in their 80's today
-- presumably, if it weren't for the mine, they would all live forever ? ]]

Deline's cancer rate isn't out of line with the rest of the N.W.T., said
Andre Corriveau, the territory's chief medical officer, although he admits
there's little reliable data before the late 1970s.
However, Deline suffers disproportionately from lung cancer associated with
uranium mining. But smoking, which southern miners may have introduced to
Deline, causes lung cancer, too.
Gaudet said Deline can't deal with all its other public health problems
until it deals with the legacy of Port Radium.
The people need the government to acknowledge the mine's role and offer to
help the community get well again, he suggested.
That's much of what the past four years have been about, said Chris Cuddy,
northern land and water director for the Indian and Northern Affairs
Department.
Experts came to Deline to talk about cancer and radioactivity, and the
people talked to them about how they lived and interacted with the mine.
Deline residents have travelled to the Japanese cities devastated by the
bomb that partly originated on their land. Trips have been organized back to
the mine site for people who grew up there.
Not that there's much left.
Buildings are long gone. Three entrances haven't been properly sealed. Most
of the tailings are covered by waste rock, but several hectares remain
exposed and tonnes were simply dumped into lakes, including Great Bear Lake.

Cuddy acknowledges radioactivity is high in some areas, although it is still
low enough to make even several days' exposure safe. There's also
heavy-metal contamination on the site.
Cleanup options range from simply sealing up the entrances to digging up and
hauling away the old tailings.
Deline wants a complete cleanup, Gaudet said.

"We'll push for the high end, the $8-to-$10-million mark," he said. "We use
every part of that lake."

The decision goes to Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Scott.
One issue the report won't discuss is financial compensation. It's up to
chief and council to decide to ask for money for the sufferings of the Dene,
Gaudet said, and council hasn't reached a position on that yet.
Gaudet hopes a decision on the mine cleanup will clear away the shadow over
Deline.

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