Work to assess groundwater contamination from Cameco’s Key Lake Mill will start later this month.

The company’s spokesperson says independent experts have been hired for the job.

Carey Hyndman says the most likely source of the increased uranium levels in one of their monitoring wells has been removed and it’s being monitored often.

She says groundwater moves slowly and uranium is not present nearby lakes used for drinking water.

Cameco reported the increase to provincial and federal regulators last December.

The company attributes it to the release of 50-thousand litres of water over the previous year from the shuttered mill to prevent radon gas from spreading..

Hyndman says a cleanup plan based on assessment results will be presented to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and local communities including the English River First Nation are being informed.

Cameco closed down Key Lake and the nearby McArthur River mine in 2018 because of weak uranium prices.

(CJWW)