The Saskatchewan Research Council is searching for contractors to clean up a tailings site at an abandoned uranium mine in the north of the province.
The Gunnar Legacy Uranium Mine was decommissioned in 1964 with little to no cleanup.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission approved the council's plan Friday to clean up the tailings site.
Joe Muldoon, vice-president of environment for the research council, says the plan includes preventing water from picking up a lot of contaminants as it runs through the site.
He says the tailings site will be covered and vegetation will be grown on it, then the site will be monitored over several years.
Muldoon says it will likely take three to four years to clean up the site.
"The site has been there untouched for decades but it is important that once you start to move machinery on site, once you start into a process like this, you want to then utilize that equipment, utilize that expertise and get it cleaned it up in the most cost-effective way that you can," Muldoon said.
He says the council will continue to work on getting approval to clean up the other parts of the mine.
(CJWW)
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