Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action

If tailings are used in construction materials, diffusion of radon gas indoors increases the risk of lung cancer as would inhalation or ingestion of small particles emitted into the atmosphere directly from the mill piles.

Trace metals and radionuclides can move from tailings into groundwater or surface water following physical or geochemical mechanisms.

The actions stemming from this Joint Statement were without a legally binding regulatory program, and so they were largely unsatisfactory.

Under these regulations, proper monitoring, maintenance and precautionary measures in the case of an emergency are mandatory for the remediation of Title I sites.

Sites who have contained all radioactive and contaminated material will be approved with a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) General License.

It contains the mechanism by which land and mill tailings are transferred to the federal government and the way costs concerning long-term management are arranged with licensees.

[1] In 2021, a yearly review was provided by the United States Department of Energy, which highlighted multiple breakthroughs from the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action in Moab, Utah.

Result from these highlights include a removal of over 12 million tons of radioactive material which have been sent to disposal, diverting about 970,000 pounds of ammonia and over 5,000 pounds of uranium from the Colorado river and disposed of a sizeable amount of building debris from the southern end of the tilling within Moab, Utah.

This act does not apply to mills passed this era and instead allow the private owners to deal with them in any way they see fit.