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Home > Nuclear Materials > Uranium Recovery > Generic Environmental Impact Statement for Uranium Milling Facilities
Generic Environmental Impact Statement
for Uranium Milling Facilities
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects numerous license applications for in situ leach (ISL) uranium recovery facilities
in 2008 through 2010. This generic environmental impact statement (GEIS)
addresses common issues associated with environmental reviews of such ISL facilities
located in the western United
States. Toward that end, the GEIS focuses on the construction, operation, and decommissioning
of ISL mills, as well as ground water restoration at such mills. By addressing environmental issues
common to ISL milling facilities in this review, the NRC staff will promote a
more efficient environmental review for each separate license application, if and when such an application is submitted. For more information on the uranium fuel cycle, see the Background and Related
Information provided below, as well as the following related pages:
Background
ISL
milling facilities
extract uranium from low-grade ores where other mining and milling methods may be too expensive or environmentally disruptive. One alternative to ISL milling is the conventional uranium milling process, which extracts
uranium from mined ore. For more information on the uranium fuel cycle, see "Regulating Nuclear Fuel" (NUREG/BR-0280).
Related
Information
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