Health and Safety | Uranium production

Strateco applies the principles of sustainable development and continuous improvement in every facet of its activities in the Matoush uranium exploration property. Strateco aims to minimize the impact of its activities on its employees, its contractors, the public, the environment and its assets.

 

Strateco’s continuous improvement helps bring a proactive contribution to the management of:

  • Health and Safety at Work;
  • Industrial Hygiene and Safety;
  • Radiation Protection;
  • Environment Protection;
  • Training;
  • Emergency Measures;
  • Communications with its employees and contractors;
  • Relations with the local communities and the First Nations.

 

Many programs in health and safety management are presently being elaborated in the anticipation of the underground exploration phase on the Matoush project. To achieve this, Strateco undertakes to:

  • Manage its activities within a global management perspective;
  • Identify, assess and manage potential risks;
  • Comply with laws and regulations, as well as corporate policies, programs and procedures;
  • Communicate all the information on its activities;
  • Collaborate with its partners;
  • Provide extensive ongoing training;
  • Monitor its activities.

 

In accordance with its integrated workplace health and safety management policy, Strateco will:

  • Establish a workplace health and safety management system;
  • Identify the workplace health and safety risks arising from our activities;
  • Implement the required prevention measures;
  • Identify events that could lead to an emergency situation,
  • Develop and maintain an emergency action plan;
  • Foster a climate of dialogue and open-mindedness with the aboriginal communities in the vicinity of our project;
  • Conduct assessments of its workplace health and safety management system;
  • Effectively communicate its workplace health and safety management system to its employees, contractors and suppliers;
  • Supply training and information to all its employees and contractors to enable them to play an effective role in workplace health and safety;
  • Ensure that employees and contractors participate actively in the management of health and safety in their workplace;
  • Provide the resources required to develop, establish and monitor the workplace health and safety management system.

 

RADIATION PROTECTION

The goal of the Radiation Protection program is to help workers to minimize their exposure to radiations in the tasks the need to execute in order to maintain the exposure levels to radon progeny as well as the amount of ionizing radiation as low as reasonably achievable given economic and social factors.

 

Some elements of the Radiation Protection program are already in place for our workers and contractors.

 

Most importantly, since the beginning of exploration on the Matoush Project in October 2006, every worker from the nuclear sector wears a thermoluminescent dosimeter. Considering that we are in a surface exploration phase, the Company fixed the exposure level to radioactivity not to go over at 1 mSv.

 

A worker or contractor with possible or probable exposure to radiations is considered a worker of the nuclear sector and must wear a thermoluminescent dosimeter. Radioactivity is measured by the thermoluminescent dosimeter, on a three (3) months period.

 

The dosimeters are managed by the National Dosimetry Services which sends us a quaterly Exposure Report - X-Ray/Gamma.

 

Article 13 of the Radiation Protection Regulations specifies the Effective Dose not to be exceeded.

Person  Period  Effective Dose*

(mSv)** 
Worker  from the nuclear sector, including a pregnant  worker 1 year dosimetry

50
5 years dosimetry

100
Pregnant  worker from the nuclear sector The rest of pregnancy

4
Person other than a worker from the nuclear sector 1 civil year

1

*Effective Dose = Represents the total of equivalent doses received by different body tissues, each multiplied by a “tissue weighting factor”.

**millisievert


Since the beginning of exploration in 2006, no exposure was detected by the dosimeters worn by the workers according to the detection limit of our dosimeters; 0.10 mSv to 1 Sv (1,000 mSv).

 

Strateco makes available information on the effects of radiation exposure to:

  • the health and safety of workers;
  • the measures taken to avoid or minimize these effects;
  • the risks associated with radiations;
  • the equivalent dose and effective dose limits;
  • the radiation dose levels possibly encountered;
  • the rights and obligations of workers and pregnant workers.

 

A worker from the nuclear sector that learns of her pregnancy must immediately advise her supervisor and the human resources department. She will be affected to other tasks with no radiation exposure and carrying no danger for her condition. Furthermore, Strateco will make sure that the worker can achieve her new tasks.

 

The following components of the radiation protection program are underway in anticipation of the underground exploration phase on the Matoush project.

  • A basic training module on health and safety vs. radiation protection will be mandatory for every worker and contractor with possible or probable exposure to radiations.
  • An information and awareness session on radiation exposure will be mandatory for staff and contractors who will be identified as not exposed to radiations.

 

Thanks to its radiation protection program, Strateco will be able to monitor exposure to:

  • ionizing radiation;
  • gaseous radon and its progeny; and
  • radioactive dust.

Different sampling methods will be used and contamination monitoring will be done so to control possible dispersion of contaminants around the installations.

 

Workers have at their disposal means and equipments of individual or collective protection, to respond to their particular needs, when it appears necessary. This must not, in any case, reduced the efforts to minimize the source of danger for their health, safety and physical integrity.

 

ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable)

The goal of the ALARA program is to help workers minimize their exposure to contaminants at work, by keeping exposure levels as low as reasonably achievable given economic and social factors. It is not enough to comply with appropriate dose limits; doses must be as low as reasonably achievable. Because even low doses can produce toxic effects, it is beneficial to reduce low doses whenever possible. Any exposure should be below dosage thresholds and as low as reasonably achievable.

 

COMMUNICATION PLAN

Strateco will apply a communication program intended for its entire staff and contractors.

 

TRAINING AND INFORMATION PROGRAM

The goal of the training and information program is to ensure that the training and information sessions are structured and qualified for the workers and contractors.

 

The health and safety law mentions that it is a right for the workers to received proper training and information on the risks related to their task. It’s also the employer’s duty to adequately inform the worker on the risk related to his work and to ensure adequate training and appropriate supervision so that the worker acquires the abilities and knowledge needed to safely accomplish his work.

 

INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

The goal of the Industrial Hygiene program is to supply tools, measures and procedures linked to the contamination management.

 

EMERGENCY MEASURES

The goal of the Emergency Measures program is to establish the role and responsibilities of the intervening parties and to specify the relation that needs to exist between them, to facilitate the program communication to the people concerned and to serve of reference document in case of alerts or mobilization.

When an emergency occurs, it is important that the people concerned can act quickly and efficiently so to protect the physical integrity of people and minimize material damage.

 

HEALTH

The goal of the Health program is to protect and maintain the health of the employees, while responding to legal demands. This program tends to a management of workers health, based on the evaluation of health characteristics necessary to the execution of work in a mining environment.

 

SAFETY

The goal of the Safety program is to eliminate, at the source, the hazards for the health, safety and physical integrity of the workers when this is reasonably achievable.

 

The program is an action plan in constant improvement to help the management team, the supervisors, the employees and the contractors in their mandate to protect the safety of everybody in a sustainable manner.

 

All the programs are applicable only for the underground exploration phase planned on the Matoush project. These programs are in the elaboration process and will become more complete and more precise over the next months and this section will be updated consequently.