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Beaufort West
Uranium Open Pits
Quaggasfontein 10 km
Beaufort West and Uranium Mining
Beaufort West
Quaggasfontein
43 km Central Processing Plant at Ryst Kuil
DR STEFAN CRAMER, SAFCEI SCIENCE ADVISOR
KAROO URANIUM MINING –
LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!
Beaufort West 19 August 2016
Southern African Faith Communities‘
Environment Institute (SAFCEI):
• is a multi-faith environment
organisation
• helping religious organisations put
Eco-Faith into action.
Launched
and inspired
by Wangari
Maathai in
2004
SAFCEI Patron
Geoff Davies
2014
Our multi-
faith board
A modern translation of Genesis 2:15
… actually it does! Think groundwater, or climate change…
South Africa from the International Space Station, on June 1, 2016
Uranium mining?
Beautiful farms in the Karoo…
… or damaged lands after uranium mining?
How a new uranium mill near Beaufort West would look like
1.What actually is uranium?
2.What is planned and where?
3.How it may look like?
4.What is the current situation?
5.What are the possible consequences?
6.But what about jobs?
7.Who is behind these plans?
and
8. What can we do to stop it?
What I want to present over the next 30 minutes:
1. What actually is uranium?
A piece of uranium ore from Ryst Kuil
Radioactivity
Radiation – Radioactivity : is it the same?
Radioactivity is
the nature of
particles that
emit radiation
A truck loaded with uranium ore is passing by.
emits weak radiation for a short while
But the radioactive dust stays behind for long
Sorry: a bit more of
nuclear physics
Uranium Decay Series
Two uses: nuclear power stations, and…
1000 kg uranium-235 replace 3 million tons of coal
Radiation therapy with radionuclides
Nuclear weapons…
Depleted uranium in missiles and bullets
Tank-breaking but with horrible health consequences
An old and new threat: Uranium Mining in the Karoo!
World uranium mining: since 1940 Canada
USA France
Germany
Ukraine
Kazakhstan USSR / Russia
Niger
Congo
South Africa Namibia
China
Australia
Active mine
Suspended
Under development
Uranium mining in Southern Africa
Husab Rössing
L. Heinrich
Trekkopje
Karoo
Springbok Flats
Lethlakane
Kayakelera
Chirundu Kanyemba
Valencia
Madagascar
Uranium deposits in South Africa
2. What was planned and where?
? ? ?
What was planned and where?
P P P
P
The new map of Karoo uranium mining?
The new map of Karoo uranium mining
Beaufort West
WINTERBERG SECTION
George
Mossel Bay
Oudtshoorn Calitzdorp
Prince Albert Laingsburg
Touwsrivier
Leeu-Gamka Merweville
Beaufort West
Gouritz Catchment
Gouritz Catchment
Breede Catchment
Uranium Mining
Exploration Concessions
The South African Dream?? To revitalize the nuclear downstream industry and supply Africa with enriched uranium…
Enrichment plant PELINDABA near Pretoria
The final product: the so-called „yellow cake“
70% to 90% triuranium octoxide (U3O8)
U-238
This how low-level nuclear waste is stored in South Africa!
3. How it may look like?
Tailings dams like in Johannesburg
Reactor tanks for uranium recovery
Open pit mining of uranium ore from sandstones
Drilling and blasting creates large plumes of dust
Loading uranium ore on a dump truck
Average wind directions and speed 1996/2016
Radioactive dust will affect the nearby towns and the KNP
Rietkuil
Ryst Kuil Merweville
Leeu Gamka
Karoo National Park
Beaufort West
4. What is the current situation in the Karoo?
Ryst Kuil Trial Mine between Beaufort West and Rietbron
Incline adit to underground mine
High-grade uranium ore in open air
Low-grade uranium ore in open air
Contaminated ore crusher
Rietkuil
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
Experimental uranium mine site operated by Union Carbide in 1979
Open Pit
Spoil
Uranium ore heaps
Public road Beaufort West to Merweville
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
Riet Kuil Uranium Channel
Karoo National Park
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
An unprotected and unregulated radioactive mine site with no warnings or access limitations
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
Grazing animals next to high-grade uranium ore
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
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0
200
400
600
800
1000
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23.02.2016 09:5023.02.2016 10:0423.02.2016 10:1923.02.2016 10:3323.02.2016 10:4823.02.2016 11:0223.02.2016 11:1623.02.2016 11:3123.02.2016 11:4523.02.2016 12:0023.02.2016 12:14
RIET KUIL Counts per minute, measured with certified instrument
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
0,3 0,2
0,3
0,2
3,9
3,3
7,3
0,9
1,3 2,9
2,2 0,5
0,9
1,2
Open Pit Uranium Mine Rietkuil
Rietkuil Dam
Unpro- tected
entrance gate
High-grade uranium ore stockpiles
Low-grade spoils from
open pit Radioactive Wastes
Gamma-Radiation measured in µS/h, an acceptable level for public exposure is 0,2 µS/h
3,9
5,7
Radiation Hotspots
GPS Coordinates
NNR Report: whitewashing the company and the NNR!
Monitoring the monitors
Waste disposal at Ryst Kuil – the legacy for thousands of
years
2 3
20
100
130+
mS/annum
Riet Kuil
Background /Safe level
Nuclear workplace
Case study: Rietkuil trial mine
South Africa is signatory to the
“Convention on the Physical Protection of
Nuclear Material”
Gamma radiation from mining wastes 40 times
permissible level
Barrels filled with uranium ore – abandoned at Ryst Kuil
Damaged uranium ore barrels at Ryst Kuil
Uranium ore is used for farm roads at Ryst Kuil
Toxic waste water seeps into the groundwater
Animals can freely roam around
and can still this today!
seen in February 2016
5. What are the possible consequences?
1.Health problems from radiation
and dust
2.Water shortage and contamination
3.Spillage from tailings dams into the
river system
4.Traffic and accidents on dust roads
1. even one radioactive dust particle can cause lung cancer
There is no safe level of radiation. Any amount of radiation can have a health impact.
On 26 April 1986 the Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant in Ukraine exploded.
350,400 people were evacuated and
had to be resettled.
A dear was born with six legs
Liver cancer in goats near Mongolian uranium mines
Scottish sheep farmers still stuck under a Chernobyl cloud 23 years later
Epidemiology in the Karoo
Huge Water Consumption
• PENINSULA ENERGY has applied for a license to use
1,400 billion litres annually for its Central Processing
Plant alone
• That is the nearly the total water consumption of the
entire Central Karoo Municipality!
700 million litres: Imagine a line of 20-l-buckets from Beaufort-West to Jo‘burg and return
Lowering of the regional gorundwater table
Uranium open pit, approx.
Groundwater impact, potential
Sout Rivier disrupted
and horrible road accidents
6. But what about socio-economic development?
RENEWABLES CREATE MORE JOBS THAN FOSSIL FUELS
How many farm jobs
will be lost??
RENEWABLES
FOSSIL FUELS
0
50.000
100.000
150.000
200.000
250.000
300.000
350.000
400.000
450.000
Jobs Currently DuringConstruction:
Low Estimate for2027
High Estimate for2027
During Operation: Low Estimate for2027
High Estimate for2027
2.600 15.000
30.000
4.800 6.000
28.000
300.000
450.000
75.000
100.000
Nuclear
Renewable
6. Who is behind these plans?
Gus Simpson, Executive Chairman
FUKUSHIMA-DAICHI
Speculation gap
Lance Project in Wyoming / USA
Can only be operated with a water licence exemption by the EPA
The money trail: 2012
Pala Investments Ltd.
Pala Investments Limited was founded in July 2006 and is based Jersey, United Kingdom with an additional office in Zug, Switzerland. www.pala.com Key Executives for Pala Investments Limited Mr. Evgenij Iorich (Russian) Vice President
Evgeniy Iorich, Russian billionaire,
son of Vladimir Iorich Russian-born 1980, German citizenship in 1995 Lives in Switzerland. PALA Office in Gotthardstrasse 26 in Zug/Switzerland
TOP 20 Shareholders of PENINSULA ENERGY as of 30 June 2016
There is a 28 % BEE partner operating under the name
of LUKISA JV Company (Ltd)
Their director: Andile Nkuhlu
• owner of LUKISA INVEST 100 and MAGO RESOURCES
• a former ANCYL leader, crony of then Brett Kebble
• became Chief Director in the Department of Public Enterprises (1996 – 2004, suspended in 2002) and
• co-founder of the Congress of People (COPE) but went back to the ANC
• Was Executive Director at Nkwe Platinum Plc
• Passed away in December 2015
Tefo Maloisane
8. What can we do to stop it?
1.Information
2.Consultation
3.Education
4.Legal challenges
5.Monitoring
1. Information: Exploration drilling near Rietbron
Training of Emerging Farmers in Loxton
With black girls from township primary schools
with black boys from a township eco-club
2. A public consultation?
3. Education is urgently required
4. Legal challenges: High Court in Pretoria
5. Monitoring: Even the exploration boreholes are
contaminated
Let us say: NO TO URANIUM MINING IN THE KAROO