Transcript of May 15, 2019 Public Hearing on Application by Orano
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Canadian uclear Commission canadienne de Safety Commission sûreté nucléaire Public hearing Audience publique May 15th, 2019 Le 15 mai 2019 Publi Hearing Room Salle des audien es publiques 14th floor 14e étage 280 Slater Street 280, rue Slater Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (Ontario) Commission Members present Commissaires présents me Ms Rumina Velshi M Rumina Velshi r Dr. Sandor Demeter D Sandor Demeter Mr. Timothy Berube M. Timothy Berube me Ms Kathy Penney M Kathy Penney Dr. Mar el La roix M. Mar el La roix Assistant Secretary: Secrétaire-adjointe: e Ms. Kelly M Gee M Kelly M Gee Senior General Counsel: Avocate-générale principale : e Ms. Lisa Thiele M Lisa Thiele 613-521-0703 StenoTran www.stenotran.com ii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CMD 19-H1.B 3 Adoption of Agenda CMD 19-H3.1/19-H3.1A 6 Oral presentation by Orano Canada Inc. CMD 19-H3/19-H3.A 28 Oral presentation by CNSC staff CMD 19-H3.4 80 Oral presentation by the Saskatchewan Environmental Society CMD 19-H3.6 99 Oral presentation by Rodney Gardiner CMD 19-H3.7 116 Oral presentation by Val Drummond CMD 19-H3.9 133 Oral presentation by the Northern Saskatchewan Environmental Quality Committee CMD 19-H3.12 142 Oral Presentation by the Clearwater River Dene Nation CMD 19-H3.5/19-H3.5A 166 Oral presentation by the Ya'thi Néné Land and Resource Office CMD 19-H3.13 183 Oral presentation by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation CMD 19-H3.10 199 Oral presentation by the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CMD 19-H3.11 208 Written submission from Emile Burnouf CMD 19-H3.3 208 Written submission from Cameco Corporation CMD 19-H3.8 208 Written submission from the Saskatchewan Mining Association 1 Ottawa, Ontario / Ottawa (Ontario) --- Upon commencing on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 10:37 a.m. / L'audience publique débute le mercredi 15 mai 2019 à 10 h 37 Opening Remarks THE PRESIDENT: Good morning and welcome to the public hearing of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Mon nom est Rumina Velshi. Je suis la présidente de la Commission canadienne de sûreté nucléaire. I would like to begin by recognizing that we are holding this hearing in the Algonquin Traditional Territory. Je vous souhaite la bienvenue and welcome to all those joining us via webcast. I would like to introduce the Members of the Commission that are with us today. On my right is Dr. Sandor Demeter; to my left are Dr. Marcel Lacroix, Ms Kathy Penney and Mr. Timothy Berube. Ms Lisa Thiele, Senior General Counsel to the Commission, and Ms Kelly McGee, Assistant Secretary of the Commission, are also joining us on the podium today. 2 I will turn the floor to Ms McGee for a few opening remarks. Kelly...? MME McGEE : Bonjour, Mesdames et Messieurs. Bienvenue à l'audience publique de la Commission canadienne de sûreté nucléaire. Mon nom est Kelly McGee. Je suis la secrétaire adjointe de la Commission et j'aimerais aborder certains aspects touchant le déroulement des audiences. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is about to start the public hearing on the application by Orano Canada Inc. for the renewal of the uranium mine decommissioning licence for the Cluff Lake Project. During today's business, we have simultaneous interpretation. Des appareils d’interprétation sont disponibles à la réception. La version française est au poste 2 and the English version is on channel 1. Please keep the pace of your speech relatively slow so that the interpreters have a chance to keep up. L’audience est enregistrée et transcrite textuellement. Les transcriptions se font dans l'une ou l’autre des langues officielles, compte tenu de la langue utilisée par le participant à l'audience publique. 3 Les transcriptions seront disponibles sur le site Web de la Commission dans environ une semaine. To make the transcripts as meaningful as possible, we would ask everyone to identify themselves before speaking. I would also like to note that this proceeding is being video webcast live and that the proceeding is also archived on our website for a period of three months after the closure of the hearing. As a courtesy to others in the room, please silence your cell phones and other electronic devices. Madame Velshi, présidente et première dirigeante de la CCSN, présidera l’audience publique d'aujourd'hui. Madame Velshi...? CMD 19-H1.B Adoption of Agenda THE PRESIDENT: With this information, I would now like to call for the adoption of the agenda by the Commission Members, as outlined in Commission Member Document 19-H1.B. Before doing so, I wish to note one change 4 to the agenda. Mr. Emile Burnouf will not be making a presentation. He asked that we consider his intervention as a written submission. This is in CMD 19-H3.11. With that change, do we have concurrence for the approval of the agenda? For the record, the agenda is adopted. Kelly...? MS McGEE: This is a one-part public hearing. The Notice of Public Hearing and Participant Funding in 2019-H-02 was published on December 10th, 2018. Participant funding was available to intervenors to prepare for and participate in this public hearing. Five groups are receiving funding and the funding decision is available on the CNSC website. The submissions from Orano Canada Inc. were filed on March 14th and the submission from CNSC staff was filed on March 18th. Both submissions were made available on the CNSC website on March 21st. The public was invited to participate either by oral presentation or written submission. April 15 was the deadline for filing by intervenors. The Commission received and permitted 12 requests for intervention. May 8th was the deadline for filing of supplementary information and I note that presentations 5 have been filed by Orano, CNSC staff and intervenors. We will begin with the presentations by Orano and CNSC staff, followed by the presentations from intervenors after the lunch break. The Members will have the opportunity to ask questions of everyone after the interventions. After the oral interventions, we will then proceed with the two written submissions filed by the intervenors and then end with a final round of questions. To support the CNSC's efforts in being an environmentally responsible organization, paper copies of the submissions are no longer distributed on the day of proceedings as they are available now electronically on our website. Madame la Présidente...? THE PRESIDENT: Before we proceed with the presentations on Orano's application, I want to note that Mr. Moulding and Mr. Wudrich from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment are joining us by videoconference at the CNSC Saskatoon office. Also, Dr. James Irvine and Mr. David Sampson from the Saskatchewan Health Authority are joining us by teleconference. Thank you all for being available for questions. 6 I would like to start the hearing by calling on a presentation from Orano Canada Inc., as outlined in Commission Member Documents 19-H3.1 and 19- H3.1A. I will turn to Mr. Dale Huffman for this presentation. Mr. Huffman...? CMD 19-H3.1/19-H3.1A Oral presentation by Orano Canada Inc. MR. HUFFMAN: Thank you. Good morning. My name is Dale Huffman and I am the Vice President for Health, Safety, Environment and Regulatory Relations with Orano Canada. I am joined by Diane Martens, the Project Manager for Cluff Lake, and Caitlin Brown, our Geosciences Lead. Our colleagues Glenn Lafleur, Manager of Northern Affairs, and Tina Searcy, our Regulatory Relations Manager, are attending the hearing from the Saskatoon CNSC office. We are pleased to be here in Ottawa for this public hearing in support of our request to renew and amend the Cluff Lake decommissioning licence. The current 7 10-year decommissioning licence will expire in July 2019. Orano has requested that the Commission approve a five-year renewal of the Cluff Lake licence with amendments. While retaining CNSC regulatory oversight, the requested licence amendments reflect the status of the completed decommissioning of the Cluff Lake site and administratively prepare the site for eventual transfer to Saskatchewan's Institutional Control Program. Our presentation today will provide a brief project summary and an overview of decommissioning activities by project area. We will present project highlights over the licence term, including physical works, monitoring and updated risk assessment. We will then provide an overview of stakeholder engagement before describing the requested licence amendments and concluding statements. The picture on this slide is of Cluff Lake, the project's namesake. The Cluff Lake Project is located in northwest Saskatchewan on Treaty 8 Territory and within the homeland of the Métis. Cluff Lake is located along the Semchuck Trail. Before the mine, the Semchuck Trail existed as a travel route that evolved to a provincial road that serviced Uranium City via an ice road in the winter across 8 Lake Athabasca. The closest community to Cluff Lake is Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, about 100 kilometres to the northwest. The closest communities by road are Clearwater and LaLoche, Saskatchewan, about 250 kilometres to the south. The Cluff Lake Project operated from 1980 to 2002, producing about 62 million pounds of uranium concentrate and 8,000 troy ounces of gold. The Cluff Lake Mine served as the largest industrial employer on the west side of Northern Saskatchewan over its mine life. Company employees averaged around 200, and with onsite contractors, indirect and induced employment, employment in support of the Cluff Lake mine was estimated to be over 900 persons at its peak in 1996. About 52 percent of company staff were northern and about 80 percent of northern employees were from the west side of the province.