April 24, 2013 07:44 AM UTC

Clean Up Colorado's "Legacy" Uranium Mines

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• by: Konola

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Western Slope of Colorado is home to over a thousand, mostly abandoned, uranium mines. Some of them were the real deal, with infrastructure traditional to mining operations. Others are small indentations in the land. These uranium mines were abandoned because there was no real market for their product, usually because the ore was not rich enough to return the investment required to recover it.

All of them have the potential to pollute water supplies. Water seeks the lowest point, and rarely stays put. Abandoned mines fill with water. Water in abandoned mines pick up the elements that are in the soil. Abandoned uranium mines have water polluted with uranium. 

Because uranium can be weaponized, uranium mining was most prevalent post WWII, as governments raced to develop atomic bombs. As the industry matured, peaceful uses of the product were developed. Our own military invented small nuclear reactors that could be used on huge navy ships, leading us to believe that we might be able to get cheap energy from this heavy metal.

While Europe and Japan developed modern nuclear power plants, for the most part the US stopped building them about 30 years ago. We had ample other ways to generate energy that didn’t involve the massive investment required by nuclear applications.

Current sources of uranium include mining, and the recycling of weaponized uranium. About 70% of the world’s need for uranium is supplied by mining new supplies, the rest comes from recycling.

The program to lease parcels of land to uranium mining companies is managed by the DOE. They are currently asking for public comment on this program. Preferred options range from cancelling all leases and reclaiming the land to continuing existing leases for another 10 years. The uranium market is still depressed, and the companies that own the leases have not been actively mining. Long term exposure to uranium is a proven health risk.

Please do your homework, and then submit your comments to the DOE by May 31. Personally, I’m for Alternative 1, although in a perfect world there would be a reset. I’d like to know what standards the DOE is going to use in deciding when a mine has been reclaimed. Are they going to lower standards as they did at Rocky Flats when dealing with plutonium?

Homework:

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Uranium Markets

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Health Risks to Uranium Mining

30 Years of Living With Uranium Exposure

The Colorado Fight Over Uranium Mines

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