There is a metals plant in the Eastern European nation of Estonia that generates a surplus of uranium-laced waste, as much as 660 tons per year. A uranium mill near Bears Ears National Monument, in southeastern Utah, has applied to the state of Utah to accept the waste which they can process for the uranium. The waste that process generates will be stored on-site at the White Mesa facility, which is about five miles from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa reservation.
Locals are concerned.
Groundwater accessed by the reservation has been contaminated for years. The tribe worries it’s because of the uranium mill, the state argues it has nothing to do with it.
“I think it would be the tribe’s preference that the facility shut down,” said Scott Clow, environmental programs director for the tribe. “But that’s a big ask there. “The mill has been there for 38 years now, and that’s a pretty short window of time compared to how long the tribe was there before and how long the tribe is going to be there after the mill, and all of that contamination.
“The mill has already become the cheapest alternative for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in North America. Now, it appears that it may become a destination for the materials from around the globe. That is disconcerting and dangerous,” he said.
A company called Energy Fuels Resources owns the White Mesa Mill. Andrew Wheeler, currently the head of the EPA, worked as a lobbyist for Energy Fuels Resources in years past, and helped successfully lobby the Trump administration to shrink the size of the Bears Ears monument to allow for more uranium mining possibilities, arguing it was in the national interest to do so.
Estonia limits how much of the radioactive material the metals processing plant can store, out of safety concerns, which is why the plant is looking for a place to ship the waste tailings. The White Mesa Mill is the only mill in the country capable of extracting the uranium from the Estonian tailings.
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality has asked for public comment before final approval of the shipments can proceed. The original deadline for comment was June 5, but it has recently been extended until July 10.
You can email your comment to this address: [email protected] Instructions for commenting can be found here, in the public notice about the project.
The existing mine & mill are dangerous enough. No more mines, mills or storage. Why is the water polluted?
5 miles from a residential area is way too close for something that toxic.
The water is polluted because of humans.
We should not process uranium from other countries. If it was mined in those countries they should process it in place, transporting uranium products over the ocean is a terrible idea.
I’d prefer to see a US business build a plant in Estonia to process the uranium.
This is crazy ,who produced this stuff ? Who profited from this ? Bury on their land . What politicians are trying to let this happen and who is bribing them ? No No No
The State of Utah & San Juan County believe this is the only way to generate jobs.
Meanwhile, last week when Arches NP reopened, the park service shut it down after three hours because of the crowds.
Now, I’m not saying a crowded Bears Ears is ideal but is sure beats nuclear waste and digging holes in the ground as alternatives.
San Juan County could get the overflow from Moab really easily but for some reason they don’t want it.
No, let Estonia keeps its waste. I am Eastern European descent and am well aware of all that is happening. The Native Americans have suffered TOO MUCH already, and to even think of doing this is apprehesible.
Here is a list of the Execs for Energy Fuel Resources. https://www.energyfuels.com/board-of-directors. I think we should devide the waste fuel up evenly, and deposit it in their backyards. At least email them and let them know how destoying our planet for their personel gain is not acceptable.
Uranium is a heavy metal (poison), and a neutron emitter which means it makes other things radioactive. It’s a mess. Uranium-235 has a half-life of just over 700 million years. Uranium-234 has the shortest half-life of them all at 245,500 years, but it occurs only indirectly from the decay of U-238.
We, in Northern Saskatchewan, so-called, on our ancient lands, where uranium mining is a big business, fought off the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to pprevent the reactor businesses from dumping their radioactive material here close to us. The fight went on for over three years until they had to move away from us. We had to study nuclear science, to pace the businesses on their lies, how radiation is safe, etc.. It is far from “safe”. It is the world’s most poisonous material ever known, to all life on the planet.
I consider myself an environmentalist. I’m also an engineer. I find myself disappointed that the typical environmentalist’s response to any article about development is always that the project should be halted. Those same people are posting comments using their computers, they own cars, they live in houses, they travel from time to time. All of those things consume energy and require raw materials that are mined and processed.
None (okay, very few) of us wants to return to the stone age, so the question is how to minimize our impact on the environment and support ourselves sustainably. Reduced consumption only gets us partway there. That leads to a different set of questions about development: What are the benefits (maybe this recovered uranium is the best way to get carbon-free power)? What are the plans to minimize the environmental impact? Does the company have a history of good environmental stewardship or not? Are there appropriate regulations and enforcement of those regulations? What are the alternatives?
I highly recommend Jeffrey Sachs’s book The Age of Sustainable Development. He discusses how to do development that lifts people out of poverty, reduces disease, and improves the standard of living in a way that respects the planet and the natural systems on which we all depend.
(One aside on uranium: Ron’s comment is mostly correct, but I want to add some perspective. Uranium itself doesn’t release very many neutrons and it’s safe to be in close proximity to it (I have been many times in my professional life) so long as you’re not inhaling or ingesting it. Once operated in a reactor, spent reactor fuel (containing the products of the fissioning of uranium) is highly radioactive and must be very carefully handled. In this particular case of uranium recovery from a waste stream, I’d be more interested in what else in the waste stream and how all of the constituents will be contained.)
Rick- a couple of points in response to the questions you posed. The article fails to mention that the Estonian government is not allowing the facility there to continue operating/expanding until they can find a place to take the waste. The government will not allow them to dispose of it within Estonia, so Utah once again sets itself up to the be the nuclear waste repository of North America (Utah has a history of this). We should ask ourselves why the Estonian government wants nothing to do with this radioactive waste material.
Allowing the White Mesa mill to take on radioactive waste streams from outside the country is precedent setting and will likely result in the mill acquiring additional waste streams from overseas. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons, one of which is that the White Mesa mill has continually proven itself incapable of property handling this type of material (storing waste in open piles in violation of permits and waste pits that are not properly lined). Additionally, given that the uranium/vanadium industry is in the tanks and has been for years, allowing this alternative waste stream will likely wholly shift the business model of the mill and provide a critical lifeline to a facility that really should be permanently shuttered (for reasons listed here, to name a few). Recent reports from Energy Fuels, who owns the mill, indicate that this is exactly the business model shift they’re after.
What’s more, this is an environmental justice issue–the tribe living closest to the mill, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, doesn’t want it as it has a long history of contaminating air and groundwater essential to residents. All other reasons aside, that alone is enough for me.
Thanks for the info, Neal. Sad to see that there is such a record of irresponsibility from White Mesa Mill. There are ways to do these things right but it looks like that hasn’t happened.
Dump if in yards of the current Gestapo regime.
How is this even a conversation? I mean we are in deep trouble with climate as it is, Now we’re seriously considering this? When are we as the large population of voters going to stand up to the big business and this president to voice our disapproval of greed? That is what this is, sacrificing Native American health and national treasures for short term profits. I don’t get it.
To answer your questions: (1) If you lived in Utah or payed attention to Utah state politics, you wouldn’t be surprised. The state is the breeding ground for terrible ideas, many of which never die but rather just go into hiding for awhile. (2) Utah leaders and regulators don’t believe in human-caused climate change and, even if they did, it wouldn’t have an effect on their thinking when it comes to these kinds of issues. (3) This is a state issue as opposed to a federal one. Utah suffers from the fact that many residents vote as a conservative bloc, primarily based on religious affiliation and direction (and very little critical thought). It’s a theocracy at the end of the day. I’m sure it’s no surprise, but the state is also ridiculously gerrymandered as to make it virtually impossible to create any balance of power between conservative and progressive viewpoints. There are pockets of progressive politics (Moab/Grand Co, Park City/Summit Co., Salt Lake City/SLC Co.), but anytime meaningful action is taken it’s quickly overridden by the state legislature. There are no bigger hypocrites than those in the Utah legislature—they love local control until they don’t (they’re also about as corrupt and self-dealing as they come). (4) The history of racism against Native Americans in Utah is horrendous. Many of those attitudes persist both consciously and subconsciously today, and heavily-influence decision-making at all levels of government.
1. Don’t engage in international waste import/export. People should be responsible for their own mess.
2. As Energy Field says the existing waste is safe, send it to the company HQ in Lakewood, Colorado.
It’s already been proven that uranium mines in the Grand Canyon have polluted water sources. Why take this any further? To spread extremely toxic waste, endanger all things living in these natural habitats and then leave it that way for hundreds of years is absurd, mindless and unjust. Stop this mining now on our designated wilderness areas.
The eastern part of Estonia has a history of being somewhat polluted due to Soviet Union legacy of industrial activity and waste from their time behind the Iron Curtain. The present Estonian government can be considered progressive, so this waste should be sent back to Russia.