PRESS RELEASE: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission hosted by the Uranium Working Group (UWG) in Chatham, VA.

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:  Thursday, August 2, 2012

Contact: Andrew Lester, 434-250-1185; Paul Robinson, 505-620-6812

Chatham – Today, representatives of the Roanoke River Basin Association (RRBA) attended a presentation by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission hosted by the Uranium Working Group (UWG) in Chatham, VA.  

The UWG was established by Governor McDonnell in January 2012 to draft a uranium mining regulatory framework, despite consistent findings in seven studies that have been completed to date that uranium mining, processing and radioactive waste storage would pose a great risk to public health, water supply, environment, and economy in Virginia.
Among the seven reports was a 300-page technical report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that, among other things, specifically addressed the ability of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide and enforce
regulatory safeguards to protect Virginians. 
 
Specifically, the NAS panel found that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has only limited recent experience regulating conventional uranium processing and reclamation activities. (pages 179 and 209).  The NAS panel also identified many gaps in the NRC regulations of uranium mills and radioactive waste storage.
US NRC is a federal agency that is charged with licensing uranium processing and handling of uranium mill tailings, the low-grade radioactive waste, left as a result of uranium processing.  If Virginia’s 30-year ban on uranium mining were to be lifted, the Commonwealth would oversee uranium mining, while US NRC would regulate uranium milling and radioactive waste storage.  Virginia has an option of seeking an “agreement state” status for uranium mill and mill tailings licensing, if the Commonwealth adopts a law equivalent to current federal law authorizing such a program, hires enough staff and provides funding for the program along with the new law, comprehensive regulatory program and full funding needed to establish a full-scale uranium mine licensing capacity.
 
“It was a very disappointing presentation.  They appear to have no relevant expertise or experience in regard to what is being proposed here in Virginia,” said Andrew Lester, RRBA executive director and Pittsylvania County native.  “They have not licensed a single new conventional uranium mill in almost three decades!”

Lester continued, “The examples of uranium facilities used in the presentation were irrelevant.  Remediation at the Canonsburg was conducted by the Department of Energy with no regulatory involvement from the NRC that cost taxpayers $75 million to clean up and the groundwater problems at that small site still persist.”

Lester also said that White Mesa mill, another conventional mill used by the US NRC presenter as an example, “is overseen by the state of Utah, not the NRC, and for years it has been the only operating conventional uranium mill in the entire United States.  During the decades when all hard rock uranium mines in the Southwest were inactive, the NRC approved White Mesa's application to process so-called ‘alternate feed,’ radioactive wastes brought in from other locations. This is the type of expansion of uranium operations that could make Virginia a repository for uranium-containing waste brought in from other states or even overseas.”

According to Paul Robinson, a Harrisonburg native, who now serves as Research Director of Southwest Research and Information Center in New Mexico and who attended the meeting on behalf of the RRBA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission came to Chatham to explain to Virginians what is involved in NRC regulation of uranium mills and tailings facilities and what would be required for Virginia to become an “agreement state.” 

“While the challenge of effectively regulating uranium mining in Virginia is both complex and expensive, the NRC and the Governor's Uranium Working Group presentations show that the challenge of effectively regulating the hazards of uranium milling and mill tailings present an additional layer of technical and funding challenges.  The NRC and UWG presentations show that the uranium issues facing Virginia are much broader than deciding whether Commonwealth can establish a program that will prevent the environmental and social impacts of uranium mining,” said Robinson.

“The presentations show that Virginians need to decide whether the 30-year ban on uranium mining should stay in place as well as debate whether Virginia can handle responsibilities of overseeing uranium processing and radioactive waste storage should mining be allowed to begin. With the uranium spot market price dipping below $50 per pound again this week, expanding uranium production around the world and the full cost of establishing a strong and effective uranium mining regulatory program by the Commonwealth still unknown, Virginia appears to be spending more than a million dollars to explore the risks associated with uranium mining with little likelihood of any market for new uranium mines for the foreseeable future.”