U.S. Uranium Production Facilities: Operating History and Remediation Cost Under Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project as of 2000

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.