nuclear-news

Uranium mining companies flock like vultures to exploited Niger

Niger coup: Good for Tuareg rebels, bad for uranium investors,  The Christian Science Monitor 23 March 2010, The military junta announced it will audit all uranium exploration permits awarded before last month’s Niger coup. Evidence has emerged that the permits enriched the ousted president and devastated the Tuareg population……, foreign investors from China, Australia, South Africa, America, and Canada have flocked to the landlocked Saharan state. Niger’s authorities have awarded at least 50 uranium exploration permits in the two years since government officials busted a 40-year mining monopoly held by France’s Areva SA, according to mining officials. But government watchdogs say these opaque contracts illegally enriched Mr. Tandja and his family, even while food shortages plagued the Saharan state……

Meanwhile, scientists documented dangerous levels of radioactive contamination still present in water and dirt in a survey of uranium mining villages Arlit and Akokan conducted by Greenpeace International and France’s CRIIRAD, an independent watchdog group. A full report of findings is due later this month.

Niger coup: Good for Tuareg rebels, bad for uranium investors / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com

March 23, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Niger | antinuclear, AREVA, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, uranium