U.S. Uranium Production Facilities:
Operating History and Remediation Cost Under Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial
Action Project as of 2000
Introduction
This report provides information for 26 former uranium-ore
processing sites and a brief history of the production of uranium for sale to
the Federal Government under the early 1940s through 1970 procurement programs.
Contamination at the mill sites resulted from the chemical processing of ore to
produce uranium concentrate. Mill tailings that contain radioactive residues
and other hazardous materials were typically stored at the sites in surface
piles impounded by earthen embankments. At some sites after the mill was
closed, tailings pile stabilization efforts proved to be ineffective, and
tailings material was subsequently spread by wind and water erosion onto
adjacent lands. The removal and use of mill tailings as construction material
also resulted in local surface contamination.
The Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Control Act (UMTRCA) of
1978 (Public Law 95-604) established authority for the Uranium Mill Tailings
Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project. The U.S. Department of Energy was directed to
cleanup 22 uranium mill tailings sites and the associated vicinity properties
contaminated by tailings debris to prevent public exposure to radiation. Public
Law 97-415 in 1983 amended the UMTRCA legislation to add the cleanup of
vicinity properties in the Edgemont, South Dakota, area. (See Background
Information.)
For each site covered in this report, a general history is
provided of the uranium processing operation. A brief description is given of
the surface cleanup activities, remediation responsibility, post cleanup site
stewardship, disposal of radioactively contaminated materials, and approach to
groundwater cleanup under the UMTRA Project. A table for each former processing
site provides information relating to its years of operation, uranium
production, size of area remediated, disposal cell level of radioactivity, and
UMTRA Project final cost. A summary table permits a comparison of the surface
cleanup project in terms of the average cost: 1) per unit of historical uranium
production; 2) per unit of radioactively contaminated material stabilized in
the disposal cell; and 3) per unit of radiation avoided by the remediation
project for each site. The location of each former uranium-processing site
covered in the report is shown on a state map.1
1 The state-level
base maps in this report are used with permission of the Office of Long-Term
Stewardship, Office of Science and Technology, under the Office of
Environmental Management, U.S. Department of Energy. The locations of the
former uranium processing sites and their names as shown in the individual
state maps were added by the Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate
Fuels, Energy Information Administration based on historical data.
Former Uranium Processing Sites
Next
Release:
October
2005
To view mill site pages, click on the mill name on the map
or on the links below the map.
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