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The valuable uranium-bearing minerals are then removed via heap leaching with the use of acids or bases, and the remaining radioactive sludge, called "uranium tailings", is stored in huge impoundments. A short ton (907 kg) of ore yields one to five pounds (0.45 to 2.3 kg) of uranium depending on the uranium content of the mineral. [3]
The Moab uranium mill tailings pile is a uranium mill waste pond situated alongside the Colorado River, currently under the control of the U.S. Department of Energy. Locals refer to it as the Moab Tailings Pile. In 1952 U.S. geologist Charles Steen found the largest uranium deposit in the United States near Moab, Utah. The uranium was processed ...
The Grand Junction Climax Mill was operative for 19 years and produced 2.2 million tons of radioactive tailings, according to the US Department of Energy. [5] From the early 1950s to 1966, Climax donated approximately 300,000 tons of radioactive uranium tailings from the mill to the city of Grand Junction for use as construction material. [7]
In 1979, more than 93 million gallons (350 million liters) of radioactive and acidic slurry spilled from a tailings disposal pond, contaminating water supplies, livestock and downstream communities.
Uravan Uranium Project, [42] at the now-abandoned town of Uravan, in Montrose County. In addition, there are 15 Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) sites in the state, under the purview of the United States Department of Energy. Eight of the sites are former uranium ore mills, and seven are engineered permanent disposal sites for the ...
Time and again, a mining company promised to clean up uranium waste in New Mexico. Now it wants to buy out residents and avoid full cleanup. Their town was polluted with radioactive waste.
[4] 1957 reports indicated an ore reserve of 8,289,207 tons that produced an average of 0.101% uranium oxide. [4] Tailings were deposited in the valley east of the mill. [16] The mine closed in 1960 and was decommissioned from 1997 to 2000. [12] 2.7 Mt of tailings remain on site [12]
At around 5:30 am on July 16, 1979, a previously identified crack opened into a 20-foot-breach (6.1 m) in the south cell of United Nuclear Corporation's Church Rock temporary uranium mill tailings disposal pond, and 1,100 short tons (1,000 t) of solid radioactive mill waste and about 93 million US gallons (350,000 m 3) of acidic, radioactive tailings solution flowed into Pipeline Arroyo, a ...