Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 25/98) - The Deline Uranium Committee has received a financial shot in the arm from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

The $146,000 in funding from the Northern Contaminants Program will help the group study radiation levels in Great Bear Lake fish.

"It's not much," said committee member Cindy Gilday. "It's to do a bit of extremely preliminary -- and I mean that, very preliminary -- testing on fish because the people are very anxious about their food source now."

Hiram Beaubier, a senior official with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, confirmed the money has been offered to the committee.

People in Deline began to worry about radiation dangers after last fall's cleanup effort of 17 cubic metres of contaminated soil in Sawmill Bay.

DIAND financed the cleanup by paying contribution-agreement funds to the Deline Band, which hired community members to carry it out.

The committee wants to know what threat, if any, radioactive materials in the area pose to residents.

Last year's cleanup did little to allay those fears, however. Instead, some residents in Deline allege proper precautions were not taken, though project director Barry McCallum of the federal Low Level Radioactive Waste Management Board stressed all required standards were met.

"The standards that were used for (the Sawmill Bay) cleanup were the same standards that were used to clean up 32,000 cubic meters of similarly contaminated soil in Fort McMurray, Alberta over a four-year period," he said.

"The same standards for exactly the same conditions."

McCallum said the operation was a success, meeting all objectives.

"When you hear that we did not demand masks be worn, that in fact is correct," McCallum admitted. "A risk assessment showed that masks were not warranted. This was a very low-level risk project."

McCallum said workers were exposed to about 0.6 microsieverts of radiation. By comparison, an X-ray inflicts about 0.05 to 0.1 microsieverts of radiation so McCallum estimates workers might have received, at the most, the equivalent to one X-ray.

McCallum equated the risk of the radioactive cleanup to workers at one-seventh the exposure received during typical a round-trip flight between Yellowknife and Ottawa.

He speaks with confidence about the low exposure to radiation because all employees wore electronic radiation meters.

"We have the dose from every single employee," he said.

The required protective clothing for the level of risk was overalls, work boots, gloves and glasses and McCallum stresses there was no work conducted in controlled work spaces without those devices.

Though not required by law, masks were available in case workers chose to wear them.