[en] The paper gives a short description of the situation in the area of uranium production in northern Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It gives a very short overview of legislation system, list of legislation associated with mining and remediation and procedures of mining and remediation activities licensing. At the end it gives 'for discussion' some approaches and interpretation in definition of the term 'mine waters'. (author)

[en] The development of environmental and safety regulation in Canada is described and the impacts of these developments on various phases of the uranium industry are examined. In the past 25 years, seven new uranium mining projects, major expansions to four projects, and five uranium refining/conversion projects have undergone environmental assessment in Canada. As regulations and the processes for applying them have developed, the size, complexity and cost of obtaining operating approvals for uranium projects have increased exponentially. Uranium projects are subject to a level of scrutiny that goes far beyond what can be justified by their potential for environmental damage, based primarily on a perceived degree of public concern, rather than any objective measure of environmental risk. The author believes that it is time to re-examine our priorities, to establish some balance between the risks of a project and the assessment effort required. Otherwise, we shall soon find ourselves in the position where smaller projects will never be developed because they cannot cover the regulatory costs. (author)

[en] New criteria accepted in the Czech Republic are described. Many of them are following internationally endorsed standards published in ICRP 60 and BSS. The main attention is devoted a license procedure, a discharges of radionuclides into the environment, limits of irradiation, technical aspects for ensuring radiation protection, monitoring programme, close out of mines and mills and radioactive waste management. (author)

[en] The Swedish Utilities, Vattenfall Fuel, OKG and BKAB (purchasing uranium and fuel cycle services for all Swedish reactors), have started 'Nuclear Fuel and Environment Project, NFE'. The purpose is to make environmental audits of companies with uranium mines, conversion, isotope enrichment and fuel fabrication facilities. Up to now five environmental audits have been carried out and another three are being processed. (author)

[en] Directive 96/29/Euratom, drawn up from recommendations of the ICRP 60, must be transposed into French legislation before 13 May 2000. For the French uranium mining sector, two ministerial decrees, one for workers, the other for the environment, must be modified to take account of the new European rules. These modifications entail new statutory limits either for the workers, or to characterise the radiological impact on the environment. For the workers, the implementation since 1980 of a policy of optimising radiation protection in French mines enables us to envisage that these limits will be respected. For the environment, the application of new limits involves a new approach for the assessment of public doses, with the precise definition of critical groups and their realistic exposure scenario. (author)

[en] Under Mining Act XLIII established in 1993, the Hungarian Geological Survey was given a wide range of authority related to the environment, mining, nuclear and general constructions. In implementing these task the Survey will be supported by the well established Geological Institute of Hungary and the Eoetvoes Lorand Geophysical Institute. The Survey's role in the nuclear field includes the licensing of plans and reports on geologically related research to any nuclear facilities. The Hungarian Geological Survey is also co-authority on matters related to the establishment, construction, modification and closure, environmental protection of nuclear facilities in general and all matter related to uranium mining. The Survey's regulatory activity in radioactive waste management follows the Decree of the Minister of Industry and Tourism 62/1997 which is based on the Atomic Energy Act CXVI of 1966. These regulations were prepared in harmony with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency conventions, standards and guides and those of other countries. Case histories on the applications of these regulations to the closure of Mecsek uranium mine and the operation of the research laboratory tunnel for long-lived, high level radioactive waste are presented here. (author)

[en] Mining and processing of uranium ore has been carried out since the early fifties at several locations in Argentina. For the purpose of this presentation only the Malargue Complex will be discussed. The second facility that will be discussed is the Cordoba Complex where uranium oxide is being produced. Since 1986, the Malargue Complex is no longer in operation and is in the process of being decommissioned and rehabilitated. Both facilities are owned and operated by the Government's Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica (CNEA). Two Government agencies are responsible for the implementation of the newly established Nuclear Law (Ley Nuclear), the Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica and the Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear (ARN). The new law follows well established international standards for radiological safety. Furthermore, any mining operation in Argentina is also governed by the country's established Mining Code. Under these regulations any new proposals will have to submit environmental impact assessments and the required public hearings before it can be approved. Thus avoiding past mistakes where practically no precautions were taken during the planning or operation stages. (author)

[en] The occurrence of uranium minerals in Singhbhum Thrust belt of Eastern India has been known since 1937. In 1950, a team of geologists of the Atomic Minerals Division was assigned to closely examine this 160 km long belt. Since then, several occurrences of uranium have been found and a few of them have sufficient grade and tonnage for commercial exploitation. In 1967, the Government of India formed Uranium Corporation of India Ltd., under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy, with the specific objective of mining and processing of uranium ore and produce uranium concentrates. At present the Corporation operates three underground uranium mines, one ore processing plant with expanded capacity, and two uranium recovery plants. Continuing investigations by the Atomic Mineral Division has discovered several new deposits and favourable areas. The most notable is the large Domiasiat deposit of the sandstone type found in the State of Meghalaya. This deposit is now being considered for commercial exploitation using the in-situ leaching technology. (author)

[en] Nuclear power progress has triggered the development and innovation of nuclear fuel industries in China. At present the Chinese government has put more emphasis on industrial readjustment and technical innovation in uranium mining and milling in order to fuel the nuclear power development, satisfy environmental protection and improve economic efficiency of the industry. The current organizations and approval procedure for establishing regulations and the implementation and consequences of the regulations, technical polices and development strategies concerning uranium mining, milling, treatment of waste ores and mill tailings, and reduction of the workers' suffered exposure dose etc. in China are discussed and the economic, health and environmental impacts of the uranium mining and metallurgy with reformation achievement and the introduction of advanced technologies such as the in-situ leaching and heap leaching mining technologies are assessed in this paper. (author)

[en] In this paper we shall delineate the current regulatory set-up in Namibia, i.e. legal framework, administrative arrangements for the management of uranium exploration, mining, milling and waste management. Uranium, mining plays a big role on the economy of Namibia. With changing policy worldwide on supply of materials and its assurance, with consequences of worldwide on supply of materials and its assurance and with consequences of the concepts of sustainable development which coupled environmental and economic consideration, industry, people, communities, and governments will realign their future perception and concepts. Environmental considerations in Namibia require that for any major development, such as uranium exploration, environmental safety analysis reports are made which should incorporate community, industrial and government regulatory concerns. Namibia, being a developing country, knows that any new regulations that will consider environmental safety and regard for safe management of uranium wastes will add more pressure on present human resource needs (regulatory enhancement) and financial burden to the existing limited infrastructure. The new regulations should address; the environmental effect on mill tailings which are a result of processing the uranium ore in a mill; heap leaching residues which result from treatment of ore; tailing impoundment; tailing pile and tailing stabilization chemically or physically. From the radiation protection concepts, consideration will be made of the relationship of the new regulations and the current practice of the (ALI) recommended by the ICRP 60 of 1990 released in 1991, vis a vis SS-115 of IAEA for uranium intakes, considering the absence of either Nal or Germanium detector or scintillation/whole body counter in Namibia; implementation of the new regulations will require material and human resources if viable advise and training on regulatory implementation of statutory promulgation are to be enforced. (author)