Some 5,000 properties in the picturesque lakeside town of Port Hope, ON, once home to a nationally owned uranium and radium refinery, will undergo testing for radon and gamma radiation as part of a cleanup effort scheduled to continue until 2022.
“About 450 Port Hope homeowners have had their soil sampled and properties tested for radon and gamma radiation in the first phase of the biggest radioactive cleanup in Canadian history,” reports Raveena Aulakh.
“Some 1.2 million cubic metres of contaminated soil — enough for 500 Olympic-size pools — will be entombed in a storage facility. A waste-water treatment plant at the site is close to completion, said Judy Herod of Port Hope Area Initiative, the agency in charge of the cleanup.”
“When Ottawa approved the cleanup 13 years ago, the cost was pegged at $260 million. It has since ballooned to $1.28 billion.”
FULL STORY: Port Hope properties tested for radiation
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