The U.S. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act -- An environmental legacy of the Cold War

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has guided the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project through its first 10 years of successful remediation. The Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA), passed in 1978, identified 24 uranium mill tailings sites in need of remediation to protect human health and the environment from the residual contamination resulting from the processing of uranium ore. The UMTRCA was promulgated in two titles: Title 1 and Title 2. This paper describes the regulatory structure, required documentation, and some of the technical approaches used to meet the Act's requirements for managing and executing the $1.4 billion project under Title 1. Remedial actions undertaken by private industry under Title 2 of the Act are not addressed in this paper. Some of the lessons learned over the course of the project's history are presented so that other countries conducting similar remedial action activities may benefit