Open Pit Plan Resulted In CNSC Challenge: Deranger

Open Pit Plan Resulted In CNSC Challenge: Deranger

Friday, October 02, 2009 at 12:34

A vice-chief with the Prince Albert Grand Council says a proposed change to the Midwest Project prompted a legal challenge to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Don Deranger says the challenge, which was filed by the Athabasca Territorial Government, came after uranium mining company AREVA made changes to its original plan for the Midwest operation.

According to the vice-chief, the company decided the Midwest Project should be an open pit mine.

Prior to that, he says, it had always been thought Midwest would be an underground operation.

Deranger says Athabasca residents should have been consulted before anything was decided.

“AREVA made some changes on the plan that was recommended in the 1990s by the federal-provincial panel… (namely) to approve Midwest as an underground operation. And in the last few years, because of the high cost of going that way, they decided to go with an open pit,” he says.

Deranger says the challenge that’s been filed is based upon the fact that the Crown had a duty to consult the Athabasca residents before the CNSC decided anything.