79
and hygiene of the people and harmful deterioration of the environment cannot be
overestimated. In the region of Agadez (nearby uranium mines), there is proven
radioactive contamination of water and the environment. Many of the mining area
are in the desert with a scarcity of water resources, hence, associated with the availability of clean water, particularly in the city Arlit where the price of 20 L water is
sixfolds higher than that of the Niamey (the capital city of Nigeria). On the other
side, 270 billion litres of water have been pumped from 1978 to 2004 to run this
water-intensive activity (Naino 2014). Each of the Cominak and SOMAΪR mines in
Arlit uses 99 m
3
h
−1
water for treatment of minerals. Consequently, water gets loss
from the fossil aquifers along with the problems of water contamination. The 14,000
inhabitants of Arlit can only access water between 3.00 and 4.00 am in the morning
time.
In South Africa, the poorly paid workers are often suffering from tuberculosis
(TB). For instance, 300 out of every one tenth of a million mine workers alone in
South Africa are occupationally exposed to TB. 50% of the migrant women in a
mining town near to Johannesburg are found to be infected with HIV (Mtonga
2014). The mining companies, however, are arranging for the health checkup of
mine workers, but either it is not regular or unreliable to the workers. The workers
of Namibian mines always raise concerns about their health status which was getting worse as a result of exposure to radiation. Workers of Rossing uranium mine
ensure that over the years, the situation has improved, but they also have complained that the safety and protective measures were very poor for who started in the
1980s (Shindondola-Mote 2014). Workers do not understand why they have not
been informed about the link between exposure to radiation and possible occupational repercussions in their safety manuals. On the basis of submitted report, the
IAEA team visited one of the largest and longest running open-pit uranium mine
sites of the world and found several cases of TB and lung cancer (IAEA 1992;
Kohrs and Kafuka 2014). Therefore, an obvious question is whether the changes
came too late for the miners. Moreover, the discrepancy like the Niger who is fuelling 80% of French electricity does not have light at home is now causing dissatisfaction amongst the peoples of the country. The Nigerian civil society has alleged to
AREVA bringing the irreversible pollution to Arlit by storing above 45 MT mine
tailings into the open air. People are having cancerous diseases, the ecological system has lost, and agricultural land is affected by draining 70% of the groundwater
layer. The situation due to uranium mining activities can be depicted from Fig. 3.
During the mining operation and more specifically after the closure of a mine,
reclamation of the mine site is a prerequisite, which is virtually impossible. Once
the rock is dug out, or ore is in situ leached by sulfuric acid, the original state cannot
be restored. Only the damage can be controlled up to certain limits. The reclamation
cost can be expensive; only a few studies exist by the German Ministry of Economic
Affairs (BMWi) and the joint study by the OECD and IAEA. An average reclamation cost has estimated to be 4.0 US $ ton
−1
of tailings if mines extracted only uranium ore; however, the cost reduced to 2.2 US $ for the mines of gold/copper and
uranium as a by-product. For example, Tanzania does not mine uranium as a
by- product has high reclamation cost, while South Africa mines recover uranium as
Environmental and Health Impact Due to Uranium Mining
and hygiene of the people and harmful deterioration of the environment cannot be
overestimated. In the region of Agadez (nearby uranium mines), there is proven
radioactive contamination of water and the environment. Many of the mining area
are in the desert with a scarcity of water resources, hence, associated with the availability of clean water, particularly in the city Arlit where the price of 20 L water is
sixfolds higher than that of the Niamey (the capital city of Nigeria). On the other
side, 270 billion litres of water have been pumped from 1978 to 2004 to run this
water-intensive activity (Naino 2014). Each of the Cominak and SOMAΪR mines in
Arlit uses 99 m
3
h
−1
water for treatment of minerals. Consequently, water gets loss
from the fossil aquifers along with the problems of water contamination. The 14,000
inhabitants of Arlit can only access water between 3.00 and 4.00 am in the morning
time.
In South Africa, the poorly paid workers are often suffering from tuberculosis
(TB). For instance, 300 out of every one tenth of a million mine workers alone in
South Africa are occupationally exposed to TB. 50% of the migrant women in a
mining town near to Johannesburg are found to be infected with HIV (Mtonga
2014). The mining companies, however, are arranging for the health checkup of
mine workers, but either it is not regular or unreliable to the workers. The workers
of Namibian mines always raise concerns about their health status which was getting worse as a result of exposure to radiation. Workers of Rossing uranium mine
ensure that over the years, the situation has improved, but they also have complained that the safety and protective measures were very poor for who started in the
1980s (Shindondola-Mote 2014). Workers do not understand why they have not
been informed about the link between exposure to radiation and possible occupational repercussions in their safety manuals. On the basis of submitted report, the
IAEA team visited one of the largest and longest running open-pit uranium mine
sites of the world and found several cases of TB and lung cancer (IAEA 1992;
Kohrs and Kafuka 2014). Therefore, an obvious question is whether the changes
came too late for the miners. Moreover, the discrepancy like the Niger who is fuelling 80% of French electricity does not have light at home is now causing dissatisfaction amongst the peoples of the country. The Nigerian civil society has alleged to
AREVA bringing the irreversible pollution to Arlit by storing above 45 MT mine
tailings into the open air. People are having cancerous diseases, the ecological system has lost, and agricultural land is affected by draining 70% of the groundwater
layer. The situation due to uranium mining activities can be depicted from Fig. 3.
During the mining operation and more specifically after the closure of a mine,
reclamation of the mine site is a prerequisite, which is virtually impossible. Once
the rock is dug out, or ore is in situ leached by sulfuric acid, the original state cannot
be restored. Only the damage can be controlled up to certain limits. The reclamation
cost can be expensive; only a few studies exist by the German Ministry of Economic
Affairs (BMWi) and the joint study by the OECD and IAEA. An average reclamation cost has estimated to be 4.0 US $ ton
−1
of tailings if mines extracted only uranium ore; however, the cost reduced to 2.2 US $ for the mines of gold/copper and
uranium as a by-product. For example, Tanzania does not mine uranium as a
by- product has high reclamation cost, while South Africa mines recover uranium as
Environmental and Health Impact Due to Uranium Mining