‘We do not need to involve uranium with war and the military’

The following is an interview with the President of Mongolian National Mining Association, D. Damba, on uranium reserves and its usage.


-When we think about uranium, war, military and nuclear power comes to mind. But from a geological perspective, what is uranium?

-It is just an ordinary mineral resource. It does not have any dangerous attributes. But once it is extracted and processed through chemical means, a highly radioactive compound named uranium-235 is created. But in its natural form, it is completely harmless.

-Does Mongolia have any experience with uranium exploration?

-During our socialist era, not much of our State money was dedicated to uranium explorations. Yet with Soviet funding, uranium located at the Mardain Mine in the Dornod Province was extracted and transported away. There used to be a village based on the mine. Mongolia did not give much attention or relevance to this mine and in the end forced all the Russians there to leave Mongolia. Afterwards, we never used that mine again, but we could have kept the village alive and mined the uranium there ourselves. The schools, apartments, hospitals and complexes in the village were completely looted in the end. The Russians took their belongings and left, and although there were guardsmen at the village, they were not effective in preventing looters from doing what they wanted to do. Since that time, foreign investment companies have been conducting explorations in that area.

-The total Mongolian uranium reserves have not been determined yet. Currently, how much of these reserves does Mongolia have?

-Private companies have been studying our uranium mines. According to them, approximately 140,000 tons of uranium is located in Mongolia. It is a small amount. Uranium is a mineral resource that is both economically and strategically beneficial, but this sector has been left alone, without any monitoring. Uranium was seen as an exclusive mineral, and there is a separate law dedicated to it – the Law on Nuclear Energy, rather than including it as a mineral in the Law on Mineral Resources. It was not the best thing to do, as the Law on Nuclear Energy is only very basic and not complete. Yet, we cannot create different laws for every mineral. Even during coal extractions, uranium veins have been found and what are the miners to do then?

Stop extraction because there is a different law in effect for that mineral?

-How effective is uranium compared to coal in terms of generating energy?

-Uranium energy is very effective economically, and can produce several times more energy than coal. Its effectiveness can be proven by looking at many countries that use nuclear power plants today. In my opinion, the State should approve the total amount of uranium resources in the country and grant permission to extract it in an environmentally friendly way as soon as possible.

-There are people who oppose nuclear energy, what do you say to this?

-The Chernobyl explosion happened due to unsatisfactory safety procedures. The nuclear power plant accident in Japan was caused by a natural disaster. This does not mean that the whole world is against the use of nuclear power as energy. If safety requirements are properly met, nuclear energy will not directly pollute the environment. But if it is used wrong, it could be the most dangerous energy produced. Many countries use nuclear energy today with no major disagreements on its use. But there are some frustrations and criticisms regarding its usage as a nuclear weapon. For example, people do not believe Iran’s assertions that it will only use its uranium in a peaceful way - most likely this is because Iran is an Islamic country. But for Mongolia, a country that is not so suspicious and with no modern history of harming anyone, we should be able to use it as a nuclear energy. It is not necessary to use uranium as a weapon or have it involved in the military.

-Mongolians tend to think that uranium mining could be environmentally harmful. Is this true?

-No, as I said uranium mining and its ore, in its natural condition, is completely harmless. We cannot blame our citizens for being cautious towards uranium mining and exploitation as this mineral is relatively new to us.

Companies involved in uranium mining and processing need to be responsible for educating the public and giving more information to them about uranium, its safety, relevance, risks and its extraction process.

-Will there be a nuclear power plant built in Mongolia?

-As a professional in this sector, I would say that it would be the right thing to do, to build a nuclear power plant in Mongolia, but we must think about whether this is necessary. I speculate to myself over whether we are responsible enough to build a nuclear power plant. We are of course, completely new to this. The most important thing to keep in mind is safety and responsibility.

Additionally, Mongolian coal reserves are ranked very high among other countries, so for the time being energy from coal should suffice. Plus, there is quite a potential here in Mongolia to utilize energy from the sun and wind. Germany for example, supports 20 – 30 percent of its total energy supply with renewable energy.

We have so much potential in other fields of energy production, so Mongolia does not need to rush to utilize a much more dangerous source of energy. Uranium exportation is fine for now.

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