Final environmental statement related to the Western Nuclear, Inc., Split Rock Uranium Mill (Fremont County, Wyoming)

The proposed action is the renewal of Source Material License SUA-56 (with amendments) issued to Western Nuclear, Inc. (WNI), for the operation of the Split Rock Uranium Mill near Jeffrey City and the Green Mountain Ion-Exchange Facility, both in Fremont County, Wyoming. The license also permits possession of material from past operations at four ancillary facilities in the Gas Hills mining area - the Bullrush, Day-Loma, Frazier-Lamac, and Rox sites (Docket No. 40-1162). However, although heap leaching operations were previously authorized at Frazier-Lamac, there has never been any processing of material at this site. The Split Rock mill is an acid-leach, ion-exchange and solvent-extraction uranium-ore processing mill with a design capacity of 1540 MT (1700 tons) of ore per day. WNI has proposed by license amendment request to increase the storage capacity of the tailings ponds in order to permit the continuation of present production rates of U3O8 through 1996 using lower-grade ores