Radiation board allows Blanding mill to process Oklahoma waste

A Utah uranium mill can begin processing waste from an Oklahoma metals plant cleanup after a decision Friday by the Radiation Control Board.
The Glen Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club said immediately it would try to block the ruling in court.
"I think this decision is transparently illegal," said Travis Stills, an attorney representing the Sierra Club. "But, of course, you have to leave that to a court to decide."
Bluff resident Krisanne Bender addressed the board after it decided, 7-3, to uphold a permit granted last year to the International Uranium Corp. for its Blanding mill by the state Division of Radiation Control. She said the panel did not have enough data about current groundwater pollution trends to be sure the addition of the Oklahoma waste will contaminate the water.
“It amazes me how so many intelligent and well-regarded folks, in my mind, can go forward with this,” she said.
Members of the committee have been considering the Sierra Club's request to revoke IUC's latest license amendment for months. Over the past two Fridays, they took testimony from state regulators, the company and the Sierra Club.
And, while board members generally agreed the waste properly qualified to go to the mill, they wrestled with a provision that allows the permit only if there is no “incremental increase” in environmental degradation because of the added materials.
Board members criticized the amount of data available on groundwater impacts at the White Mesa mill site, as well as the quality of the data provided by the company.
“The evidence is inconclusive,” said board member Peter A. Jenkins, a University of Utah health physicist.
But Michael Zody, an attorney for the company, reminded board members they were not deciding on the groundwater issues because IUC has a valid groundwater permit.
In the end, board members indicated they did not have enough information to suggest there would be environmental damage that could justify denying the permit. They also directed radiation regulators to work closely with the Division of Water Quality on a groundwater review that is already underway.
IUC generally waits until it has all of the material it plans to process on site before beginning to run it through the mill, and all of the Oklahoma material is at least a couple of months from being on site, said Company President Ron Hochstein.
That gives the Sierra Club some time to seek a stay in court, if the group decides to pursue its objections. The group contends the 32,000 tons of Oklahoma tailings should be regulated as hazardous and radioactive waste. It contains high concentrations of radium - as much as 85 times the concentrations federal and state laws allow - and highly toxic contaminants that including cyanide, lead, cadmium and tin.
Stills also called it "immoral [and] unacceptable" to allow possible further contamination near the site, given its possible impacts on Utah's poorest county.