NRC imposes tougher stance on uranium mining

By MJ Clark

June 8, 2009 --

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission published its final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for in situ leach uranium recovery (ISR) operations in the Western United States last week. The final GEIS includes a change in the agency's approach for environmental reviews of new ISR facilities: new recovery operations will require full Supplemental Environmental Impact Statements

(SEIS) instead of Environmental Assessments as originally planned.

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, an Environmental Impact Statement is the most thorough review of potential impacts of a proposed licensing action on the environment.

According to Wyoming Mining Association Director Marion Loomis, the NRC's decision is "pretty disappointing, given that the generic EIS that they spent the last two years or so developing appears not to be the vehicle that they will use going forward.

"The whole idea was to reduce the time and effort involved in the permitting process," he said. This new direction "will effectively stall the whole industry."

At present, Loomis said, Wyoming has only one fully permitted uranium ISR operation: Cameco's operation north of Glenrock.

"We have a number of projects that have permit applications in to the various agencies, hopefully they'll be reviewed under rules that were in place at the time they submitted their applications. We were told a year ago that they would not stop processing permits already received - but we were also told that this [the old] GEIS would be used by everybody, even new projects. Now it sounds like that's not the case."

The NRC expects approximately 17 license applications for ISR milling facilities through

2010, including new facilities, expansions and restarts. The agency claims the new GEIS will improve the efficiency of environmental reviews of these applications by serving as a starting point for site-specific environmental reviews of these applications. The agency expects to complete most licensing reviews within two years, subject to available resources.

http://www.wyomingbusinessreport.com/article.asp?id=100552