Shock of indigenous people on uranium exploration agreement

Lutselk’e shocked by chief’s support of Ur-Energy exploration

CBC NewsSeptember 3, 2009

Some residents in Lutselk’e, N.W.T., were surprised Wednesday to hear their leadership is supporting a uranium company that’s exploring for uranium in the Upper Thelon area.

Members of the Lutselk’e Dene First Nation, which has long opposed uranium mining there, say they were shocked when Chief Steve Nitah told CBC News the First Nation signed an agreement allowing Ur-Energy Inc. to conduct a small exploration project this summer at its Screech Lane property, just south of the Thelon Game Sanctuary.

……….. Lutselk’e residents have been apprehensive about uranium mining for good reason: toxic waste tailings from a uranium project there in the 1950s were reportedly dumped into nearby Stark Lake.

People in the area have said that as a result, fish in the lake have since become deformed and infested with parasites.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/09/03/lutselke-ur-reax.html

September 4, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium