Nunavut voters should decide uranium policy in public vote

NUNAVUMMIUT MAKITAGUNARNINGIT

IQALUIT and BAKER LAKE – A prolonged debate about the possibility of a moratorium on uranium mining in Nunavut could negatively impact on how potential investors perceive the territory. Mining capital can go anywhere it chooses. If investors have doubts about the certainty afforded by Nunavut’s regulatory regime, they can simply invest their money somewhere else.

Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit believes that this is why Nunavut should do what the Province of British Columbia has already done.

Their very pro-mining Liberal government recognized that the people of the province did not want to see uranium mines opened in their watersheds or nuclear reactors built on seismic fault lines, so the B.C. banned uranium mining and nuclear power generation in the province.

This decision was the result of careful consideration of the pros and cons of uranium mining and nuclear power generation. The B.C. government concluded that the negative impacts of uranium mining far outweigh any potential benefits.

Has this policy scared mining capital away from B.C.? Not at all. On the contrary — it clarified matters considerably.

If you want to explore for gold or copper or almost anything else, you are welcome to apply for permission from the province’s regulatory agencies — but not for uranium. That’s as clear as it could possibly be.

If Nunavummiut were to so choose in a free and democratic vote, Nunavut could make it unequivocal that while we are a pro-development and pro-mining jurisdiction — with a settled land claim and an orderly regulatory process — we are firmly opposed to uranium mining.

That clear message will not frighten away iron miners or diamond miners or gold miners.

The present situation in Japan is a stark reminder that the ability of human beings to ‘manage’ unforeseen events has its limits.

The Japanese nuclear industry’s recklessness and irresponsibility in building nuclear reactors on seismic fault lines is having tragic consequences for millions of innocent people.

In addition, Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit believes that it would be impossible to ensure that uranium from Nunavut would never be used in unsafe nuclear reactors or in nuclear weapons.

As MiningWatch Canada has noted, “Canadian uranium is pooled with uranium from other sources and contributes to the total uranium available on the global market. Transfers between countries also make assurances of the initial importing country difficult to uphold.”

A 1993 joint federal-provincial review of uranium mining in Saskatchewan noted that “Current Canadian limitations on end uses of uranium provide no reassurance to the public that Canadian uranium is used solely for non-military applications by purchasers.”

In the United States, Canadian uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors along with any other uranium being processed. The leftover “depleted” uranium (U-238) is stored at the enrichment sites, and may be made into depleted uranium weapons.

There is no way to identify the origin of the depleted uranium used in these weapons, just like nuclear weapons made from highly-enriched uranium and/or plutonium from reprocessed nuclear fuel waste.