Because of the nature of our business, Cameco’s employees are exposed to a variety of potential hazards which, depending on the type and location, can also pose risks to members of the public.
We follow national and international guidelines, and have numerous programs and policies designed to eliminate and minimize these risks.
More about government oversight and regulation
In Canada:
- The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) – regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy
- Health Canada – the lead federal department responsible for the Federal Nuclear Emergency Plan, and one of the key departments supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
- The Radiation Protection Bureau – a branch of Health Canada, it contributes to maintaining and improving the health of Canadians by investigating and managing risks from natural and artificial sources of radiation
- Transport Canada – regulates the transport of dangerous goods and promotes public safety during transport
Goods can’t be exported without a CNSC-issued export licence and a permit from the exports division of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In the United States
The Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and state-level regulatory bodies oversee radiation-related public safety. The United States Department of Transportation regulates Hazmat material transported to or from the United States.
Challenges
Ensuring the safety of our employees and the general public is Cameco’s top priority. We invest significant time, effort and resources to protect our operations and activities for everyone. Because of the importance and complexity of these issues, however, there are several challenges we face in ensuring public safety. They include:
Identifying risks and minimizing hazards – Our formal enterprise risk management system, embedded into every aspect of our company, involves systematically identifying, recording and tracking the potential risks that threaten public safety at every facility we operate. Once risks are identified, we will change processes, materials or systems to minimize the potential hazard.
Safe and compliant transportation – We rely on road, rail and sea transportation to get our raw materials and finished products to our processing sites and our customers. Making sure carriers are reliable and up to the task is a key concern, as is packaging, preparing and labelling the materials properly for safe transport.
Training and preparing for emergencies is complex and ongoing – Employees are trained to handle incidents ranging from mine accidents to accidental spills of dangerous goods in urban settings. Radiation safety officers face additional challenges in keeping employees and members of the public safe during an emergency, including keeping radiation doses within the appropriate limits, and making sure doses can be estimated reliably.
Public perception of our safety processes – There’s skepticism and mistrust of the resource industry as it relates to environmental and public safety. Influenced by media reports of high-profile incidents and accidents, even non-nuclear events such as the Lac Mégantic railway explosion and oil spills in various places affect public trust levels. Public fears related to radiation risks further compound the issue. Successfully educating the public about how low the risks actually are, and how prudently we operate, is an ongoing challenge.
Ensuring the safety of our employees and the general public is Cameco’s top priority.
Taking Action
Together with government and regulatory bodies, we use a comprehensive, systematic approach to manage and transport our materials safely and protect the public.
Reducing and eliminating hazards – we actively seek to minimize or eliminate hazards where we can. We also adjust shipping schedules to avoid dangerous weather or road conditions when we can and take other decisive steps to increase safety.
Radiation safety – although the low-level radioactive materials we produce and ship present very low risk to members of the general public, radiation safety is a critical part of both emergency response and public safety, day to day. We protect members of the public from radiation exposure by restricting access to our sites, containing radioactive materials and by regularly comparing local environmental radiation levels against typical background and maximum levels permitted under our operating licences. Our operating procedures and the facilities themselves are designed to ensure the public isn’t exposed to unnecessary radiation from any of our activities. See our section on radiation safety for more information
Shipping vendor selection and auditing – we choose our shipping partners carefully and audit their performance with regular frequency. Drivers are trained to understand the Class 7 (radioactive) materials they transport, the importance of transporting our products safely, and to respond appropriately if a transport accident occurs.
We generally use liner vessels for maritime shipping, where the containers are locked into place and can’t move. When we use charter vessels, we will ensure a Cameco representative is at the shipping port to oversee cargo loading and unloading, confirming that the cargo is uncompromised and handled appropriately. No Class 7 material can be shipped internationally without an export permit and licence.
More about the materials we ship
Understanding the materials we ship
Uranium concentrate (UOC) – the product we ship most often and in the largest quantity. UOC is at the low end of radiation risk spectrum – a low gamma emitter – only presenting a risk if it’s inhaled or ingested.
In an unlikely spill scenario, UOC can be safely recovered by our emergency response team, wearing basic personnel protection equipment. We commit to attending all incidents when the emergency response team is activated and will provide radiological expertise and equipment to assist with the monitoring. We oversee the cleanup efforts typically through the use of contracted third-party emergency response providers.
During routine shipping, within sealed drums, UOC presents essentially no external radiation hazard.
Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) – represents both a chemical and radiation hazard because in the unlikely event of a cylinder breach during an incident, hydrogen fluoride (a very corrosive gas) can be produced on contact with air. Like UOC, uranium hexafluoride is at the low end of radiation risk spectrum – a low gamma emitter. UF6 is transported in specialized cylinders which conform to international standards and are subject to approval by regulatory agencies such as the CNSC. Cylinders are required to meet rigorous performance standards in case of fire, fall or other potential incidents. The cylinders also only have one valve and one plug, and if a valve is breached, the material crystallizes, plugging the breach.
Natural uranium fuel assemblies – unlike the enriched uranium fuel assemblies used for light water reactors, the fuel assemblies used in Candu reactors contain only natural uranium. The fuel assemblies are made up of hard pellets packed in tubes, which are in turn packed in bundles. The bundles are packed in large foam containers that are designed to protect them from damage. The bundles themselves pose no risk to people.
Emergency preparedness and crisis management plans – we maintain three levels of emergency preparedness plans:
- Corporate-level plans ensure that our crisis preparation, emergency planning and communications are comprehensive and consistent across our operations. They also prepare us to deal with a larger scale or remote crisis.
- Division-level plans address crisis management at the business or operation level.
- Site-level plans use the expertise of site employees who know the facility and location of essential equipment that make it possible to respond quickly and effectively during an emergency. In northern Saskatchewan, Cameco teams also support each other through mutual aid and can request additional emergency response assistance in the form of manpower and/or materials and equipment from one or all of the other northern mine sites.
Exercises and drills – our sites use tabletop exercises and drills to test parts of their emergency response and preparedness plans every year. They also perform complex full-scale exercises every three years. The full-scale exercises typically include and involve, when appropriate, local emergency responders, municipal leaders and regulators. Annual transportation full scale emergency response exercises will involve transportation carriers, emergency response contractors, first responders and regulators.
Emergency responder training – Cameco sites utilize site-trained emergency responders, a minimum number of whom must be on site during every shift. This includes a primary team, a backup team, and another team “in ready.” Emergency responders must be thoroughly trained in essential rescue and response skills and fire fighting. All of our sites utilize these responders, with the exception of Crow Butte and Inkai, which rely on local external emergency responders.
More about emergency responders
Honing our emergency response skills
For our Saskatchewan mines, we participate annually in mine rescue and emergency response competitions with other mining companies. These test the skills our teams need to perform rescue operations, using protective respiratory equipment, emergency tools, gas testing equipment, fire fighting and first aid skills.
The competitions give our emergency responders a chance to hone their skills and network with responders from other companies, and give instructors a chance to observe how well their teams cope with a stressful situation that simulates a real emergency as closely as possible. There is also an opportunity to assess the quality and effectiveness of our emergency response program against a benchmark of other teams and programs, to see where and how we can improve.
Because the competitions are open to the public, these events are also a good opportunity to educate community members about how we prepare for and manage real-life emergencies.
Outreach and education – outreach to the general public, municipal leaders and first responders is a key part of our public safety program. We meet with larger fire departments along selected shipping routes every three years, delivering information sessions that help them get to know us and our emergency capabilities. These sessions also give us an opportunity to answer questions they may have about transporting radioactive material. At a community level, we do public outreach and discuss public safety in a variety of venues, whether it is at community forums in Port Hope, Ontario or during our annual community tour in northern Saskatchewan. We have also developed community websites, which in an unlikely event of an emergency, would be used for communicating with local communities.
