Sawmill Bay, Great Bear Lake, NWT, Canada - Historic Northern Uranium Transportation Route

Significant liabilities to the Accounts of Canada from environmental impacts exist in northern Canada.  Many of these isolated northern sites were the product of tactical military requirements during World War II and the ensuing Cold War era.   As the sites were of strategic importance, both Canada and the United States provided significant levels of funding and manpower for construction and implementation.  In some cases, the US military held operational control.   Following the Cold War, many of the sites were of no military value and as a result were neglected and rarely decommissioned.  Sawmill Bay, on Great Bear Lake, is one of these unique sites.

The Port Radium mine, upgradient from Sawmill Bay, was opened in 1942 to meet the emergency wartime demand for uranium. Uranium oxide was required for the development of the first atomic bomb under the Manhattan project.  The topography of Sawmill Bay, as compared to Port Radium, provided an ideal location for the establishment of an airport to service the Port Radium mine with larger aircraft.  Uranium ore would be transported by barges from the Port Radium mine to Sawmill Bay, moved to the airstrip, then transported by DC-3 to Edmonton and ultimately to the US. 

Radiological impacted areas, associated with historical handling and transportation of uranium, have been reported.  Soil results also indicate that arsenic has separated from the uranium ore. Also in soil, petroleum hydrocarbon impacts co-mingle with the radiological and metal impacts.  

A risk-based management approach was developed, which integrated the site issues and set the conditions for the long-term exit strategies.  Two different end-points are currently being considered: 1) the construction of on-site landfills or 2) consolidation and off-site removal of all materials.  A combination of the two end-points, coupled with risk management measures, is also possible.