Uranium mill tailings remediation in the USA. A history and lessons learned - 59407

Document available in abstract form only. Full text of publication follows: Since the 1940's uranium ores have been processed at various locations in the United States to extract and produce uranium and other concentrated materials, first for government (weapons) research and production, and then for nuclear power production. The tailings residue from the uranium milling process contained radioactive (primarily Ra-226) and hazardous chemicals. Large volumes of tailings were produced during the milling process. In the early history of this process the tailings were not recognized as hazardous and were released to the general public for a wide variety of uses, resulting in significant spread of contamination in the vicinity of many operating mills. In the late 1960's and early 1970's laws were enacted at the state and federal level to begin to deal with the legacy of this contamination. Over the course of the next several decades various regulatory agencies were responsible for remediating these sites. Different approaches were used, different end points and definitions of clean were used, and very large sums of public funding were spent on remediating these sites. Rarely was the cost commensurate with the risk reduction obtained through remediation. This paper will present an overview of the history of the uranium mill tailings regulatory and remediation program in the United States, the cost of the program compared to risk reduction, successes and failures, and important lessons learned that should be applied to future efforts in this area. (author)