March 23rd, 2011 - Fixing Up Highway Creek Bridge!

author: AREVA

While visiting with comunity leaders and members during 2010, we repetedly heard people identify a number of specific road improvement suggestions.  One of these suggestions was that the bridge over Highway Creek, west of La Ronge on Highway #2, needed to be fixed up as it appeared to be “sagging”.

Our commitment to the community people we met in 2010 was that we would communicate all the concerns they raised about the roads to the officials at the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure – we kept that commitment.  We brought community concerns to Ministry officials and to the Minister himself.

We were very pleased to discover in February 2011 that the Highway Creek bridge was being repaired to addressed the issues Northerners had identified.  The efforts and hard work undertaken by the Department of Highways and Infrastructure to meet the residents of Northern Saskatchewan’s expectation are commandable.  We would encourage Northerners to continue to communicate with us and with government officials to ensure that issues are brought forward and that highways and infrastructure work the way they were intended to.

As stewards of Saskatchewan’s North we all play a role in bringing improvements to the region.

December 21st, 2010 - The Best Drivers Around

author: AREVA-admin

Safety is one of our core values, and ensuring the public’s safety on the road is very important to us.  One of the ways we can ensure road safety is by requiring that those that haul goods for us are some of the best drivers around.  Many of the drivers have more kilometres on the northern roads than you and I will ever see, but at a minimum, these are some of the basic standards:

  • Drivers must have a Class 1 A licence, long combination vehicle licence, 5 years or more of B-train experience and clean driver’s abstract
  • Must take a Professional Driver Improvement Course every 4 years and an interactive training program using simulated driving scenarios
  • Are trained with WHIMIS, radiation safety, uranium ore slurry product specifications and are certified in Transportation of Dangerous Goods
  • Are required to stop every two hours as per standard operating procedures.
  • Must try as best as possible to have only one truck on a bridge at one time
  • Must slow down when meeting other vehicles on the road, including passenger vehicles
  • Radio each other about road conditions and other vehicles on the road

Have you ever wanted to hop in a semi truck?  Now is your chance – watch this video.

September 28th, 2010 - Video Released: Sharing The Road Safely

author: AREVA-admin

If you came to one of our open houses, you’ve already seen our newest video production called Sharing The Road Safely. We reviewed some of the important rules of the road in a previous post and mentioned a video would be available soon.  So, here it is.  If you would like to watch the video in cree, click here, or if you would like to watch the video in dene, click here.

September 2nd, 2010 - Ore Slurry Containers: Built for Safety & Durability

author: AREVA-admin

The uranium ore slurry will be transported in specially-designed containers similar to those used during the past 10 years without incident between the McArthur River mine and the Key Lake mill.  These containers withstand extreme cold and hot temperatures, fire hazards, and traffic accidents.  Their wall thickness serves as a barrier to radiation exposure and protects their contents.

What makes these containers so special?

These containers consist of a vessel, a complete steel outer structure/frame, and steel cladding on the outside of that.  The frame is made out of 150x150x6 HSS steel (hollow structure section).  The outer cladding is a 6 mm thick steel plate.  The vessel has 16mm thick walls. The 16mm walls by itself is very thick; to put it in perspective, a holding tank in a uranium mill that would hold similar slurry, would have 6mm thick walls.

The below diagram shows the ore slurry container. The “x” markings you see is an area full of insulation.

The containers are designed to meet all national and international safety criteria.  They have been through many tests to ensure that they will be leak and spill proof and limit potential radiation on the outside of the containers.  Some of the tests they have gone through include:

  • drop tests
  • stacking tests
  • heat, cold, and fire resistance tests
  • pressure variation tests
  • vibration tests
  • acceleration tests
  • closing devices, valves, nuts and bolts tests

If you have any other questions about these ore slurry containers, feel free to ask us or catch us on the road for the next three weeks in the north.


August 13th, 2010 - Northern Road Conditions

author: AREVA-admin

The network of roads in northern Saskatchewan is an important link for several northern communities.  These roads are also critical for several mining and exploration operations that rely on the roads for transporting goods and products to and from the mine sites and exploration camps.  In turn, the roads are shared by local traffic and mining trucks.  One of the concerns we’ve heard with the McArthur River Ore Haul project is that people are worried about the conditions of the roads.

It is in our best interest to ensure the quality of the northern roads is maintained and improved.  AREVA and Cameco will continue to contribute significantly every year to the Northern Highway Improvement Fund.  We also work closely with the Ministry of Highways & Infrastructure to find ways to improve the roads.  A few specific improvement initiatives that we are willing to talk to the Province about are:

August 5th, 2010 - Uranium Ore Slurry vs. Yellowcake

author: AREVA-admin

What is yellowcake? What is uranium ore slurry? And what’s the difference?

Yellowcake is uranium concentrate in the form of powder.

Ore slurry is ground uranium ore in the form of a thick paste.

So now you know that yellowcake is powder, and uranium ore slurry is paste. But what else is different?  Yellowcake contains about 85% uranium, which is about four times the uranium that is present in uranium ore slurry from McArthur River.

The ore slurry eventually gets converted into yellowcake.  In this project, for example, the uranium ore would leave the McArthur mine site in the form of uranium ore slurry. Once it arrives at McClean Lake, it would be processed at the mill into yellowcake.

Both the yellowcake and uranium ore slurry are transported on public roadways, but the containers that ship them are different.  Yellowcake is transported in purpose-built barrels (as see in the above photo). Uranium ore slurry is transported in specially designed containers (right) that will withstand extreme cold and hot temperatures, fire hazards, and traffic accidents.  Their wall thickness serves as a barrier to radiation exposure and protects their contents.

Uranium ore slurry has been transported using similarly designed containers for the past 10 years without incident between the McArthur River mine and the Key Lake mill.  Likewise, yellowcake has been safely transported in northern Saskatchewan for over 30 years.  We are committed to continuing to transport uranium ore slurry and yellowcake safely.