Yellowknife (Oct 08/04) - The NWT director of highways says the road out of Yellowknife is safe to drive.

People shouldn't worry about chipseal that carries minute amounts of radioactive material, said Kevin McLeod.

McLeod said a buzz has been growing in his department ever since last Wednesday's Fishin' Technician column was published. In the column, retired prospector Brian Weir suggested the crushed rock used to make the pink-coloured chipseal on Highway 3 near Rae-Edzo is radioactive.

The rock is quarried from nearby outcrops of pink potassic granite.

McLeod said he realized the column was written tongue-in-cheek, but the department opted to check geological records with the NWT Chamber of Mines anyway, to try and found out what is really there.

He said some employees and their families, while mostly in a joking mood, have expressed concern since reading the column.

"The wives read it and they say, 'well, buddy isn't going out there if there's radioactivity,'" said McLeod.

He said transportation staff wear dosemeters on their belts, which check for levels of radioactivity, when measuring the density of road surfaces. They wear them as a safety precaution because the density-checking equipment has "nuclear ions inside."

Nonetheless, he said, no one has become ill from using the "densimeters."

"These guys all wear it and they've been wearing them for years and nothing has ever shown up that they're getting extra radiation," said McLeod.

"Precambrian rock is what's in there and it has natural radiation in it like everything else."

Carolyn Relf, manager of the C.S. Lord Geoscience Centre, said the pink rock is harmless, although a little "hot" to some extent.

"This is the Canadian Shield. It's full of rocks that are rich in potassium and uranium and all those incompatible elements that are typically radioactive," said Relf.

"But I think you'd do a lot more damage sitting in the sun for an afternoon on the beach than sitting on an outcrop."

An uranium mine -- Rayrock -- was once in operation about 100 km north of Rae, but Relf said those rocks aren't the same as those by the highway.

Regardless, Weir still insists the rocks used in the chipseal are typically much more radioactive than others. He didn't go as far as saying they're dangerous, but "just one of those things you don't know."

"All that granite around Rae is three times background (radiation)," said Weir, background meaning the amount of radiation coming from the sun.

"It's one of the highest background radiation places in the world."

He said he's surprised the pink chipseal has escaped the attention of environmentalists.

"I just find it curious that they never jumped on this wild bandwagon and started ranting and raving, because you know how the anti-nukes go off the deep end," said Weir.