[NMScience] NRC SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT

[Deb Thrall]

NRC SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON DRAFT GENERIC ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY OF IN-SITU
LEACH URANIUM RECOVERY OPERATIONS

 

 

            The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment
on a draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for in-situ
leach uranium recovery operations in the western United States.

 

            The draft GEIS, developed with the cooperation of the
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, identifies and evaluates
potential environmental impacts common to the construction, operation,
aquifer restoration and decommissioning of in-situ leach facilities in
Western states. In-situ leach is a process in which local non-potable
groundwater with added oxygen and sodium carbonate or bicarbonate is
injected into an underground ore deposit to leach out (or dissolve)
uranium, which is then pumped to the surface for additional processing.

 

            The NRC currently expects to receive 20 applications for new
uranium recovery operations and 10 applications for expansion or restart
of existing facilities through 2011. About 75 percent of these are
expected to be for in-situ leach operations. By addressing common issues
associated with environmental reviews of these facilities, the NRC staff
will use the GEIS as a starting point for its site-specific
environmental analyses of individual license applications or as a
supplement to previous environmental analyses of existing sites.

 

            The draft GEIS is available on the NRC Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1910/.
Public comments will be accepted on the GEIS through Oct. 7. They may be
addressed to the Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch, Mailstop
T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C.,
20555-0001. Comments may also be submitted by electronic mail to
NRCREP.Resource at nrc.gov. Please include "Uranium Recovery GEIS" in the
subject line.

 

            The NRC staff will hold a series of public meetings in
Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and New Mexico, the four states where
uranium milling companies have indicated interest in applying for new
NRC licenses. Staff members will present the findings of the draft GEIS
and accept oral and written comments. 

 

The meetings will be held Aug. 25 in Spearfish, S.D.; Aug. 27 in
Chadron, Neb.; Aug. 29 in Newcastle, Wyo.; Sept. 8 in Gallup, N.M.;
Sept. 9 in Grants, N.M.; Sept. 11 in Albuquerque, N.M.; Sept. 23 in
Gillette, Wyo.; and Sept. 25 in Casper, Wyo. Details of the meetings
were published today in the Federal Register. (NOTE: The Federal
Register notice mistakenly reverses the locales of the last two
meetings.) The meetings will also be publicized on the NRC Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov <http://www.nrc.gov/>  under Public Meetings.

*************The final meeting scheduled for New Mexico will be at the
Albuquerque Hilton (1901 University Boulevard, NE) between 7:00 and 9:30
p.m. on Thursday (9/11/08)*********

 

 

###

 

                News releases are available through a free listserv
subscription at the following Web address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at
www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent
to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.

 

 

 

Jeannette V. Quesenberry

Office of Congressional Affairs

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Jeannette.Quesenberry at nrc.gov

301-415-1776

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.aps.edu/pipermail/science/attachments/20080909/34923b26/attachment.html