environment and safety

Summer student Tamara Layton downloads data from a water monitoring station at the Cigar Lake project.

Environment

Cameco is committed to the protection of the environment and maintains a program of comprehensive sampling, compliance monitoring and long-term impact assessment.

The company is constantly expanding its knowledge base by conducting environmental research programs in areas such as waste rock, tailings geochemistry, sediment toxicity and ecological engineering.

There were a number of environment and safety developments throughout 1998.

Kumtor Operation  In May 1998, a truck accident 78 kilometres from the Kumtor minesite in Kyrgyzstan caused 1,762 kilograms of sodium cyanide to escape into a small mountain river. The truck and its cargo were removed from the water less than six hours after the accident. The river water was clean and safe to use within hours of the cargo removal.

There were many unconfirmed media reports of illness, death and environmental damage in the following weeks. A scientific commission of international experts was assembled at the request of the Kyrgyz Republic. The commission concluded, among other things, that no one died and there were no confirmed illnesses as a result of the spill and there was no possibility of harmful exposure to cyanide in the air, in the soil or in the local water-supply channels located downstream from the accident.

Following the accident, the Kumtor operation has updated its environmental management systems, strengthened its emergency response procedures and launched a program to improve relationships and communication with local communities and governments.

McArthur River  With the receipt of the remaining regulatory approvals earlier in the year, construction progressed well and Cameco is preparing to apply for an operating licence in 1999. The pre-operational baseline environmental work was essentially complete at year end.

Cigar Lake/Rabbit Lake  In April 1998, the Saskatchewan and Canadian governments announced that the Cigar Lake uranium project was approved to proceed to the construction licensing phase.

Following an agreement in principle with the Cigar Lake joint venture, Cameco has submitted a proposal to the regulators for processing a majority of the Cigar Lake ore at the Rabbit Lake operation. The provincial and federal governments are developing environmental assessment guidelines and Cameco has initiated preparation of the necessary environmental impact statement.

	Summer student Roy Robillard and enviroment technician Tim Kopech take water samples from the fish habitat built by Cameco at the Rabbit Lake operation.

Key Lake  In 1997, the mined-out Deilmann pit was converted to a tailings facility. In 1998, Cameco received regulatory approval to change to a subaqueous (under water) method of tailings deposition. This method will be adopted for the placement of the tailings from McArthur River ore which will be milled at Key Lake. This will shield the radiation associated with the McArthur River tailings and eliminate the possibility of tailings freeze up. Cameco also received regulatory approval to construct the McArthur River ore receiving station.

Contact Lake  The Contact Lake mine began decommissioning work after mining was completed in late spring.

Industrial Safety

In 1998, employees and long-term contractors had 18 occupational lost-time accidents at all sites operated by Cameco and its subsidiaries. Regrettably, there was a fatality at Contact Lake prior to closure when a contractor employee was killed in a surface maintenance shop accident. The overall lost-time, accident frequency rate of 0.52 per 200,000 hours worked recorded by Cameco and its long-term contractors compares favourably to 1.10 for the Saskatchewan mining industry. Lost-time accidents are those in which the time lost as a result of work-related injury extends beyond the day of the injury and prevents employees from reporting to work on their next scheduled shift.

Cameco staff and long-term contractors at the Key Lake operation and Port Hope conversion plants were free of lost-time accidents during 1998. The Blind River refinery set a remarkable record of nine full years of operation without a lost-time accident on January 26, 1999. Also during 1998, the Blind River refinery achieved 1.5 million person hours without a lost-time accident while the Kumtor operation reached 1 million person hours.

Regulatory Matters

Federal regulations under the new Nuclear Safety and Control Act were published in October 1998. Cameco and other industry participants provided feedback on the regulations which will likely come into effect in late 1999. Under the new act, lower radiation exposure limits will be established, incorporating a formula that combines the doses of gamma radiation, radon and dust intake which an individual receives in a year.

Cameco-operated sites can meet these new standards. Even in the future high-grade mines at McArthur River and Cigar Lake, these new standards will be met through design features engineered into the mine and mill processes and through work practices developed at existing operations. Cameco will continue to search for new ways to further reduce exposure as operational procedures are refined.