In Quebec City, environmental activists set up a mock mining camp on the lawn of the provincial legislature to voice their opposition, and legally obtained an exploration permit via the Internet to dig under Quebec's national assembly to make their point, while lawmakers mulled changes to the province's mining laws.

"Radioactive mining residue, we don't want it," Marc Fafard, spokesman for "Sept-�les without uranium", a group based in the town of Sept-Iles on the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

"And I can't think of a single municipality in our region, nor government, that could ensure sites are cleaned up once extraction is completed," he said.

Canada supplies some 30 percent of the global demand for uranium used in nuclear reactors to produce electricity. Over the next decade, at least 100 new reactors are due to be fired up.

Three uranium mines in a remote part of Saskatchewan province in western Canada are currently the only ones in production in this country. The city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan hosted an international uranium conference this month.

But demand for uranium outstrips what the province could ever hope to supply and several companies are now looking beyond its borders to Quebec, where exploration for yellow cake has begun at dozens of sites.

Many Quebec citizens are worried. In December 2009, some 20 doctors from the town of Sept-Iles and nearby areas, concerned for the health of local populations, threatened to quit en masse to pressure the government not to allow uranium mining in the province.

At the same time, anti-uranium protests made headlines in local papers.

Opponents of nuclear energy demanded a three-year moratorium on exploration and exploitation of the resource to give Quebecers time to become better informed about its benefits and risks and then decide if they want to welcome the industry to Quebec.

This "ridiculous" timeframe would deter investors, according to Yvan Loubier, spokesman for Uracan Resources, which is exploring northern Quebec for uranium deposits.

Faced with stiff opposition, mining companies have had to defend their environmental practices.

"It's clear that is doesn't entail any health danger, nor for security," said Loubier, pointing to 60 years of uranium mining in Saskatchewan.

But Marc Fafard is unconvinced. "The industry is lying to us. It's ridiculous and frustrating," he said.

"Quebec's north is a giant network of interconnected lakes, the risks are too high," he insisted, explaining that radioactive contaminants could find their way into rivers that flow past towns and villages into the Saint Lawrence seaway.

"Saskatchewan's experience doesn't compare with Quebec," he insisted.

His objections, however, failed to convince the provincial government which dismissed calls for a moratorium at the start of legislative discussions on August 17.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News