Comments on: Discussion Topic 1, Changes in the uranium industry http://blog.epa.gov/milltailingblog/2010/05/133/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=133 The purpose of this discussion forum is for EPA to receive public input as it reviews 40 CFR Part 192 regulations Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:29:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: bcourter http://blog.epa.gov/milltailingblog/2010/05/133/comment-page-1/#comment-27 bcourter Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:26:42 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/milltailingblog/?p=133#comment-27 Your comment is appreciated. We understand that uranium can be associated with a wide variety of other valuable metals, all of which can add to the economic value of the ore which is processed at a mill. Under the provisions of UMTRCA in Section 206, EPA is charged with developing standards for “…protecting the public health, safety, and the environment from radiological and nonradiological hazards associated with the processing and with the possession, transfer, and disposal of byproduct material, …, at sites at which ores are processed primarily for their source material content or which are used for the disposal of such byproduct material.”

While the scope of these standards cannot address the conventional mines, they do focus on all the activities associated with the conventional mills. In our review, we are determining if any hazards for practices at conventional mills need to be addressed further than they are in the current rule. Any additional thoughts on this matter would be helpful. The hazards associated with ISL/ISRs and heap leaching are also being examined in our review, as we state on this website.

]]> By: Phil Egidi http://blog.epa.gov/milltailingblog/2010/05/133/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Phil Egidi Thu, 23 Sep 2010 04:38:42 +0000 http://blog.epa.gov/milltailingblog/?p=133#comment-19 The need for vanadium will likely help conventional milling still be viable at times. The extra income from selling vanadium (which may occur at four to five times the amount of uranium in some ores) gives conventional milling a continued role from an economic standpoint. The environmental issues at conventional mills that are not at in-stu sites however, are significant and should be evaluated. For example, a conventional mill will be associated with mines, ore transport and storage, crushing, fine ore storage, and of course, tailings that will remain for ever. In-situ does not have any of those to deal with.

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