Risk Based Environmental Assessment for Uranium Mines — The Canadian Experience

The Canadian Nuclear Safety and Control Act (NSCA) requires the prevention of unreasonable risk to, and adequate provision for, the protection of, the environment and the health and safety of the public. Canada has developed a regulatory framework emphasising the importance of human health risk assessments (HHRA) and ecological risk assessments (EcoRA) as core tools for ensuring protection of the public and the environment. The value of such an approach is presented as well as the evolution of environmental risk assessment (ERA: HHRA + EcoRA) from its original application for assessing the environmental acceptability of a new project to its present application throughout the life-cycle of a facility. (author)