Uranium Mining

Uranium exploration & mining in Nova Scotia: The Province has passed a bill to repeal the Uranium Exploration and Mining Prohibition Act, which long has forbidden uranium exploration and mining in the province.

Even before Nova Scotia had a legislated ban, it had a long-standing moratorium on uranium exploration and mining. Friends of Nature and our Founder, Rudy Haase, were instrumental in securing this moratorium on uranium exploration and mining which was instituted by Conservative Premier John Buchanan in 1981. Prior to the moratorium, there had been extensive exploration for uranium in Nova Scotia by prospectors and mining companies, including on private land. This sparked widespread outcry from Nova Scotians, especially in rural Nova Scotia. The call for a ban on uranium exploration and mining was led by grassroots activists, including women’s groups, doctors and several newly formed organizations, with support from Friends of Nature and the Ecology Action Centre.

The mining industry and some levels of government have stated that there is an increased need to mine uranium to fuel nuclear power (which they refer to as “clean energy”). Currently, there are no nuclear power plants in Nova Scotia. In fact, Scotland and Germany are moving away from using uranium for nuclear power as they invest in cleaner energy.

Uranium mining comes at a high cost to the environment and high risk to human health. The techniques used to mine uranium use large amounts of water, which is contaminated after the mining and milling processes, and must be remediated after mining. An additional risk of uranium mining is that the tailings left after mine processing are radioactive and remain so for thousands of years. Canada already has a problem in its existing waste from uranium mining: 218 million tonnes uranium mill tailings, 167 million tonnes uranium waste rock and 2.5 million spent fuel bundles (from nuclear energy generation). Working in uranium mines poses higher risks to workers than other forms of mining, including an elevated risk of cancer, even when safety procedures are followed.