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- By Professor Victoria Sutton
Guest Opinion. Uranium is the fuel for both pressurized nuclear reactors (PNR) and boiling water reactors (BNR) and the cylindrical pellets that go into the long, cylindrical rods that are inserted into the reactor core are about the size of a Jolly Rancher candy. Unlike its depictions of glowing fluorescent green, uranium fuel does not glow green. In fact, its precursor, “yellow cake” is, well, yellow.
The good news about uranium fuel is that it is not scarce. It is about as common as tin, and about 40 times more common than silver. There is more uranium than gold or mercury, but less than cobalt, lead or molybdenum. Countries around the world have uranium, so there is no one country that can monopolize the supply.
However, getting it out of the ground, recovering the uranium isotope, cleaning up the mine damage, using it in nuclear reactors, then disposing of it becomes complex.
At least with the abundance of uranium, it seems within our reach to quadruple nuclear reactor power by 2050 as the goal of the Trump policy, as well as the triple nuclear reactor power goal set by the Biden Administration. Worldwide, the World Nuclear Association predicts a doubling of the 2024 annual uranium demand by 2040. So more mines will be needed to meet future needs.
The United States will require 19, 011 tons of uranium in 2025, the most of any nation in the world, followed by China (13,872 tons); France (8,389 tons) and Russia (6,251).
American Indian reservations in the southwest are estimated to hold up to 50% of the uranium reserves in the United States. The Navajo Nation had the most uranium mines of any reservation—1,000 mines with 500 abandoned mines, currently. Other tribal lands include: Yakima traditional lands in Washington state, the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, the Havasupai lands near the Grand Canyon and areas near the Mescalero Apache Reservation also have mines and supply labor for mining the uranium.
The Wilson Center Project found this:
From 1950 to 1980, 96% of all U.S. defense-related uranium mines were located in the Navajo Nation. The remainder of U.S. defense-related uranium mines were located on lands of the Pueblo of Laguna, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Hualapai Tribe, the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, and the Ute Indian Tribe.
On all Native American reservation lands there are 4,000 abandoned mines. Historical Lakota lands have thousands of abandoned mines, too.
Uranium Mining Boom
It was the 1940s-1980s when the major uranium mining activities took place in the United States. Of the 1,000 mines on the Navajo Nation reservation, 500 mines were abandoned, requiring clean up and closure.
There are three types of uranium mining:
Open pit mining is where orebodies lie close to the surface are usually accessed by open cut mining, involving a large pit and the removal of much overburden (overlying rock) as well as a lot of waste rock.
Underground mining is used when orebodies are deeper, which involves construction of access shafts and tunnels. However, less waste rock is removed resulting in less environmental damage.
In situ leach mining (ISL) can be used when orebodies are deposited in groundwater in “porous unconsolidated material (such as gravel or sand) and may be accessed simply by dissolving the uranium and pumping it out”. It is not recommended where groundwater is used for drinking water. It is the mining method with the least environmental damage.
The mining process is unique in that it is radioactive and leaves radioactive tailings as its solid waste, which can be in the form of slimes to coarse sand. The coarse sand is pumped back into the underground, and the balance is a slurry that goes to a “tailings dam.” It is these tailings dams that are treated in decommissioning.
Groundwater must be restored after a mine is depleted, and it must meet a baseline standard that was determined at the beginning of the mining project. A typical standard might be to restore it to potable water or stock water, which is usually less than 500 ppm total dissolved solids. Contaminated water that is withdrawn from the aquifer has to be either evaporated or reinjected, after treatment.
Regulating Uranium Mining
First, the uranium mine is regulated by BLM, the Bureau of Land Management, an agency within the U.S. Department of Interior. (Framework: 10 CFR Part 20, Part 40, Appendix A to Part 40.). In order to protect the environment, a Memorandum of Understanding has been agreed between BLM and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to ensure compliance. Environmental regulations that must be applied to mining include the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Clean Air Act (CAA).
Uranium ore extraction on federal lands is governed by the 1872 Mining Law, however mines not on federal lands are regulated by the states. In the state of Texas, for example, the Texas Railroad Commission has responsibility for regulating surface mines.
Abandoned mines that were not sealed and cleaned up by the companies that may now no longer exist, are the responsibility of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Decommissioning of mines is the responsibility of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The U.S. EPA is delegated the responsibility to implement the Uranium Mill Tailings and Radiation Control Act of 1978 (UMTRCA). This Act requires EPA to be responsible for establishing environmental standards for decommissioning uranium mines. UMTRCA also gives the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the responsibility for licensing and regulating uranium production and related activities, including decom-missioning.
Opening new uranium mines to meet the demand
Opposition to new mining is a reflection of the years of physical damage to the environment caused by “activities like open pit mining, tailings disposal, wastewater treatment, subsidence, and the construction of surface facilities.” New mining technologies minimize and reduce the surface disruption, and these new technologies should be funded. Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into mining plans should be undertaken as a collaborative effort for efficient use of resources and conservation of land to avoid future costs and because it is the right thing to do.
The legacy of uranium mining is still being seen today as harmful to the environment and harmful to the health of those who worked in the industry. The next phase of nuclear energy must also have the next phase of uranium mining with new technology that promises to conserve the important resource of land and its potable groundwater.
This boom time of uranium mining, should look a lot different than the 1940-1980s period—in fact, it must.
To read more articles by Professor Sutton go to: https://profvictoria.substack.
Professor Victoria Sutton (Lumbee) is Director of the Center for Biodefense, Law & Public Policy a
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