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28 PROGRESS EDITION Eldorado Continued from Paqe 21 skilled labour. The plant requires land with access to good road and rail networks to transport incoming raw materials and finished ura- nium products. The refining process requires chemicais, water, and power. PERSONNEL Depending on production capacity, approximately 150 employees will be required for the operation of the refinery. The plant construction work- force would average 225, with a peak of 350. LAND The refinery requires an inner operating area of some 50 acres - 10 acres for the plant site, about 20 acres for roads and storage of ma- teriais, and 20 acres for engineered waste manage- ment. Because a uranium refinery is considered by the regula- tory authorities to be a "nuclear facility" it requires an exclusion zone arounc fhe perimeter of the inner operat- ing zone. The purpose of the exclusion zone is to ensure that Eldorado can monitor and control other activities (such as farming or other industrial operations) in the immediate vicinity of the refinery. This explains why Eldorado acquired at Port Granby acreage that would surround the inner operating area. TRANSPORTATION AND RAW MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS Rail and road transporta- tion is required to bring in mine concentrates (yellow- cake), chemicals, fuel oil, equipment and supplies, and to ship finished uranium products from the refinery. Shipments of yellowcake in drums will probably continue t> be by truck from most Ontario mines, while 'those f-orm Beaverlodge will conti- nue to move by air and rail. These are the modes of The Canadian Statesman, March 2, 1977 transport used for shipments process - the type and availa- to Port Hope for the past 20 bility of yellowcake feed, the years. plant capacity, and its final The major chemicals used refined uranium product. For in the uranium refining pro- the purposes of the detailed cess are hydrofluoric acid, environmental and engineer- nitric acid, lime, and am- ing studies, these factors have monia. Transportation of been established based upon these chemicals is by truck or extensive studies of best data rail, depending on the source. currently available. The type WATER of yellowcake will be pri- Process water requirements marily that currently produé- for the refining process are ed at the Elliot Lake mines approximately 3,000 gallons and the designed capacity of per minute - primarily for the refinery will be 10,000 tons cooling purposes. Potable of uranium per year as UF6. water requirements are 100 The new Eldorado refinery gallons per minute and fire will be the most modem protection requires an assured uranium refinery in the world supply of 750 gallons per and the latesf demanstrated minute. technology will be incarparat- ENERGY ed in the design of the facility. The main source of heat in The refining process begins the refining process is steam with the receipt of 45-gallon whose production will require steel drums contaîning 750 ta up to 3.5 million gallons of 1,000 pounds of yellowcake. Bunker C (heavy oil) per year. The material is carefully Electrical requirements total weighed, sampled and analyz- 10,000 kilowatts, primarily for ed ta determine and contrai theelectrolysis processfor the the amounts of uranium and generation of gaseous fluorine impurifies entering the refin- used in the refining process. ing process. DESIGN CRITERIA In general ferms the basic In the design of any building steps in the refining process or plant some basic decisions involve separatian, reduction, or design criteria must be hydrofluorinaion and fluori- taken into account during natian. planning and detailed engi- In the purificMion stage the neering studies. Among uranium is separated from the others, the major design chemical impurities contained criteria for the proposec in the yellawcake by a solvent refinery are: extraction mefhad, or alterna- 1. The level of radioactivib tively by a distillation 0fthe that now exists naturally a, UF6 product the proposed site boundary The reduction stage in the will not be increased by process invalves the reactian refinery operations. of hot hydrogen gas with 2. Dust and gaseous emissions prepared uranium feed ma- from the plant will meet terial ta produce a brown federal and provincial stan- pawder, uranium dioxide dards. (U02). In the subsequent 3. Liquid effluents from the hydrofluarination stage, the plant will meet federal and U02 is then reacfed with provincial guidelines. hydrofluoric acid ta produce 4. Operating conditions within greensaîf, uranium fetraflou- the site will meet federal and ride (UF4). provincial occupational health In the final step of the and safety requirements. pracess, UF4 is reacfed wifh URANIUM REFINING fluorine gas, generated an site PROCESS by electrolysis, ta praduce Apart from environmental gaseous uranium hexaf1uoride factors, many other factors (UF6). The purified gaseous influence the choice and final UF6 is refrigerated and cal designaf the uranium refpining lected as a solid, reheated, to a liquid for transfer to cylindri- cal steel containers that are designed to rigid international standards, and allowed to cool to solid UF6prior to shipment. WASTE MANAGEMENT The uranium refining process generates two main types of waste material: 1. The main chemical residue is calcium fluoride, an inert solic, which resuits from the addition of lime to solutions used for removing small quantifies of unreacted hydro- fluoric acid from process steams. 2. Waste impurities which are contained in the yellow-cake received from the mines are separated from the uranium during the purification stage and subsequently concentrat- ed to a dry solid in the process. These waste impurities are mainly sodium, calcium, mag- nesium and iron salts, and silica sand, and contain minute quantifies of the radio- active decay products of uranium such as radium and thorium. The waste impurities are classified as low-level radio- active solids and contain approxiniately 1 per cent of the radium and thorium originally present in the ura- nium ore. About 99 per cent of these elements are removed in the milling process and re- main with the waste solids (tailings) at the mine site. It is proposed to contain both the chemical residues and waste impurities by engineered burial methods in a selected waste management area on the site. The waste management area has been identified through extensive hydrogeological investiga- tions conducted as part of the detailed environmental assessment of the site. The engineered buriai method is designed to minimize the possibility of infiltration of surface and ground waters by use of an impermeable clay cover, surface drains, and contouring of the final soil cover to promote surface water run off. Observation wells, beneath and around the burial trenches, will be instal- led to maintain a constant check on the quality of the ground water. Scrap material such as rags and paper, which may contain small quantifies of uranium, wiill be compacted and incinerated in a licenced facility on the site. The incinerator ash will be buried with the refinery residues. With these measures, the waste management method and monitoring system will ensure that the wastes ge- nerated in the uranium refin- ing process will have negli- gible environmental impact outside of the waste manage- ment area. In the waste management area the cover of top soil will provide sufficient sheilding of the low-activity radioactive solids so that the ground level radioactivity would be acceptable for future use of the !and for agricultural and recreational purposes. January, 1977 i need hardly remind this audience that uranium is a unique element, with unique physical properties that make it an important source of energy. These unique proper- ties give uranium a unique value and distinguish if from other metals and commodit- ies. The same physical prop- erties make uranium the subject of government con- cern and comprehensive con- trol. The supply of uranium continues to be a matter of great political and strategic significance. Over the years the primary focus has shifted from military security to the increasing importance of uranium to energy security and thus to economic security. As a fuel for a nuclear reactor, uranium represents a very small fraction of the cost of a kilowatt hour. Yet without the long-term assurance of uranium supply, the hundreds of billions of dollars already invested in the nuclear fuel cycle are in jeopardy and the nuclear option becomes less viable. In fact, the importance of uranium as a source of energy for the future is exemplified by meetings such as this one. Furthermore, governments around the world have recog- nized that they must obtain higher economic returns from the depletion of their nonre- newable resources, whether the returns are in the form of higher royalties or increased economic activity associated with further processing. Uran- ium is no exception: it is becoming an important con- sideration in the development of national industrial strate- gies both in the developed and less-developed regions of the world. For example, instead of selling mine concentrates, Canada would like to seil reactors and reactor fuel. The price for uranium as reported by NUEXCO, reach- ed unprecedented levels dur ing 1976. There have been aliegations that these prices are "rip offs" and will result in windfall profits for the producers. I cannot speak for others but I can say that Eldorado, in meeting its contractual commitments, is currently delivering concen- trates at prices below their replacement costs. We were able to show a profit last year only by the sale of lower-cost inventory. I would prefer to think that current price trends are an indication of better days ahead for the producers and of better understanding by utilities of the intrinsic value of uranium. I wish to emphasize my belief that the supply uncer- tainties are of a short-term nature. There is sufficient uranium and thorium in the earth's crust ta fuel reactors well into the third millenium. We are beginning to reach economic returns that, I hope, will ensure the necessary productive capacity. I must emphasize that productive Continued on Page 29 ~cQtw~g ~~w o ~wtita~~'tQebut we ee we are aQieadg ontaega pakt o conmuniitg a aU9. Q1})k wouQd Qtk to 9tceQk thank aOQ Ouk patkos ~ok themU Qogaß suppokt. Now Open Thursday and Friday Evenings until 6:00 p.m. ROYAL BANK Manager, R.E. DUNCAN 21 KING ST. WEST BOWMANVmLLE (Operating in Bowmanvillel Port Hope Ready-Mix Limited A Quality Product Delivered in Radio Dispatched Trucks. SAVES YOU WORK, TIME, MONEY. TELEPHONE 623-4425 885-5929