Yeelirrie

 Yeelirrie in Brief 

Yeelirrie is Western Australia’s largest uranium deposit, and one of the most heavily tested.

Since the discovery of 35,000 tonnes of radioactive rock lying exposed at Yeelirrie, a community campaign was successful in forcing the owner to clean up the site.  

Researchers from the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia were dismayed to discover that 35,000 tonnes of raw uranium ore were stockpiled in the open air on a pastoral station south-west of Wiluna.

The site was remediated in 2003 and 2004 after a 20 year campaign to have the ore reburied. The ore, in the form of a powdery white rock known as calcrete, was sitting in four large stockpiles around three open-cut test pits.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Western Mining Corporation conducted extensive tests at Yeelirrie, going as far as sending ore to Kalgoorlie for processing. Following the introduction of the ALP’s Three Mines Policy, which banned any new uranium projects, Yeelirrie was shelved.

In a report released in 1997, WMC admitted to having left the site unfenced and without warning signs for 13 years. Belatedly, a cleanup of the contaminated site was undertaken, which involved fencing the areas of worst radiation and posting danger signs on the fences.

 Essentially, the ‘cleanup’ consisted of pushing the ore into piles for later recovery. For 6 years, the radioactive rock was blowing in the breeze, washing into the water supply and gradually cycling into the local environment. Beta and Gamma radiation emissions from these piles were as high as 56 times normal background.

The real danger in leaving this kind of material exposed is that once radioactive isotopes have entered the food chain in large quantities, there is no meaningful possibility of a cleanup. Cancers and genetic diseases will follow as the poisons accumulate in the tissues of living creatures, including the bush foods – kangaroos and wallabies – of local indigenous people.

The exploration pits were left exposed, and had collected substantial quantities of water. Ground-level readings inside one of the pits were as high as 50 times background. 

 

A Background to Yeelirrie
A historical backdrop to the present mess.