Left in the dust - Greenpeace

Dust from the AREVA-operated SOMAIR open-pit uranium mine in Arlit.
Uranium mining activities are a source of radioactive
dust 97 . Freed by mining explosions and released from
the storage of ore and mining wastes (waste rocks,
tailings), the wind can cause radioactive dust to travel
great distances.
Some of the mining activities create additional
dust, according to Alhacen. “They [SOMAIR] make
large holes to enable big open sky detonations. For
economic reasons they make large explosions…
but they could make small holes. There are many
problems: the dust is greater with big detonations.
These explosions were felt 80 kilometres away! There
are many houses in the city that have cracks because
of these explosions. In the beginning, you could hear
it 200 kilometres from here…We have asked them to
make smaller holes.” 98
The Greenpeace team took a range of samples of
soil in the mining towns 99 . Generally, the fine (dust)
fraction 100 of those samples shows an increased
radioactivity concentration compared to the gross,
coarse fraction (see Table 2 on page 38). Sometimes
the activity concentration was two or three times
higher in the fine fraction.
Fellow ex-worker Tanko Anafi, adds “We are in this
dust since 1968. We live in the same plight from the
dust. There was a slight improvement in 2009. An NGO
called out for the watering streets of certain streets...
The trees are becoming all red. It is the same for us!” 101
Increased levels of uranium and decay products in
small particles that easily spread as dust would point
at increased risks of inhalation or ingestion, given the
amount of dust that is created in the mining process,
and that deserts are obviously dusty by nature
(aggravated by intense seasonal dust storms).
97 US Environmental Protection Agency, RadTown USA; Uranium Mines, April
2006. http://www.epa.gov/radtown/docs/uranium-mines.pdf
98 Interview with Almoustapha Alhacen, President of Aghir in’Man, Arlit, Niger,
November 2009
99 CRIIRAD report no. 10-05, Analyses radiologiques de sol prélevé par
GREENPEACE au NIGER (secteur ARLIT et AKOKAN), 28 January 2010
100 Fine fraction = the fraction with particles smaller than 63 microns (dust)
101 Interview with Tanko Anafi, former mine worker, Arlit, Niger, November 2009
Left in the dust | AREVA’s radioactive legacy in the desert towns of Niger | 35