Decommissioning Of U S Uranium Production Facilities

From 1980 to 1993, the domestic production of uranium declined from almost 44 million pounds U3O8 to about 3 million pounds. This retrenchment of the U.S. uranium industry resulted in the permanent closing of many uranium-producing facilities. Current low uranium prices, excess world supply, and low expectations for future uranium demand indicate that it is unlikely existing plants will be reopened. Because of this situation, these facilities eventually will have to be decommissioned. The Uranium Mill Tailings and Radiation Control Act of 1978 (UMTRCA) vests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with overall responsibility for establishing environmental standards for decommissioning of uranium production facilities. UMTRCA also gave the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the responsibility for licensing and regulating uranium production and related activities, including decommissioning. Because there are many issues associated with decommissioning-environmental, political, and financial-this report will concentrate on the answers to three questions: (1) What is required? (2) How is the process implemented? (3) What are the costs? Regulatory control is exercised principally through the NRC licensing process. Before receiving a license to construct and operate an uranium producing facility, the applicant is required to present a decommissioning plan to the NRC. Once the plan is approved, the licensee must post a surety to guarantee that funds will be available to execute the plan and reclaim the site. This report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) represents the most comprehensive study on this topic by analyzing data on 33 (out of 43) uranium production facilities located in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

Describes the growth of the domestic uranium industry and the development of the regulatory framework. Provides a general description of production methods, current status, and the types of wastes cleanup problems as well as reclamation processes followed at conventional uranium production facilities. Describes the decommissioning procedures at nonconventional production facilities. Concludes by focusing on the potential impact of decommissioning costs on current and future uranium supply. Contains a glossary, tables, graphs, and photos.

As nuclear power plants reach the end of their life cycle and are closed, the uranium mining and milling facilities that have fed them will have to be decommissioned. This report provides information to governments to help plan and implement the decommissioning and closeout of such facilities along with the associated tailings impoundments, debris piles, leach fields, and unprocessed ore stockpiles. The goal is to enable a site to meet the radiological criteria either for unrestricted use or for long-term closeout under institutional control. Includes a glossary without pronunciation. No index. Distributed in the US by UNIPUB. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Most countries use or handle radioactive material in some manner, whether in nuclear power plants or nuclear fuel cycle facilities, medical research laboratories or manufacturing plants. This publication summarises the decommissioning activities undertaken around the world, as well as considering those that are currently under way and those that will need to be performed in the future. The aim of the book is to assess future levels of resources that will be needed to support decommissioning activities around the world and to identify issues that may need to be addressed. The book will be of interest to regulators, engineers and planners as a basis for developing a regulatory infrastructure and implementing a decommissioning programme. A CD-ROM is included containing details of the location, type and status of nuclear power plants, research reactors, fuel cycle facilities and particle accelerators along with relevant associated data.

The "Red Book", jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a recognised world reference source on the uranium industry. This publication collates and analyses key information drawn from the twenty editions of the Red Book published between 1965 and 2004, in order to set out a comprehensive review of developments in the world uranium industry from the birth of civilian nuclear energy through to the beginning of the 21st century. It summarises developments in the major uranium-producing countries and topics covered include: installed nuclear capacity, reactor-related uranium requirements, market price, exploration, resources, production, natural and enriched uranium inventories, thorium, mine start-up and closure histories, environmental aspects of uranium mining and processing.

The legacies of past uranium mining and milling continue to be of concern and require assessment and remedial action. This problem has been recognized in many parts of the world over the past three decades, but has received increased attention since the end of the Cold War. Considerable effort and resources have been expended in dealing with this legacy. However, it has to be noted that the search for uranium has covered almost all countries on the globe. The result in some countries is a legacy of numerous small scale mines and mills. For economic and other reasons, including less stringent environmental standards and awareness at the time, these operations may not have been properly closed out and made safe. The remediation strategies and techniques developed by major problem holders, such as the USA or Germany, often would be out of scale for the problems in other countries. Therefore an international workshop was organized in Lisbon from 11 to 13 February 2004 as a forum for the exchange of views and experiences of countries with smaller scale uranium mining legacies.