YES! In my model of a decimated NRC and EPA, this is a USGS and (State-Run) Atomic Energy Regulator (AER) issue. UTAH won't pay billions to move a hill and USGS would probably put it on a list of maybe never projects- status- "monitor and report."
USGS would create a rule that if unpleasant soluble material makes it to the pile, it needs a diaper and a cap. DONE!
So I guess the ammonia in cat pee is so dangerous to the Colorado river that we have to do something about the local house cat and mountain lion population.
Moab is a pretty area. I’ll gladly take this pile of dirt off their hands for free if I can live on it. I’ll even throw in some bonus vinegar to acidify the soil, and ammonium acetate is volatile so it will just evaporate away over time...
The Moab area is likely to have additional uranium deposits worth mining at today's prices and those that are reasonably expected in the future as we expand our use of nuclear energy. Unfortunately, uranium miners are confronted with intense opposition almost every time they try to reopen old mines or prospects near old mines.
I suspect that the sudden collapse of the US uranium mining and milling enterprise after a peak in production in 1980 was partly responsible for the animosity to uranium mining that arose in Moab and among tribes like the Navajo.
They suffered from the bust and hold a grudge. They use complaints about tailings piles as leverage for clean-up projects that employ some of those who could be mining and for providing some funds to local governments that could be coming from taxing mining operations.
We would all be better served if the "clean up" was part of a productive operation to extract valuable raw materials and properly handle the resulting tailings - perhaps by putting it back in the ground where it came from in the first place.
I agree, Jack. They have no fear of the radioactivity.
They do, however, fear the lack of jobs and income that came when the mines were closed or the weapons programs were wound down. Sure, they’re exaggerating or inventing other concerns. But they just want the money to keep flowing one way or another.
Good article, very interesting
Ammonia is a gas and is likely tied up as an ammonium salt of some sort in that whole mess.
YES! In my model of a decimated NRC and EPA, this is a USGS and (State-Run) Atomic Energy Regulator (AER) issue. UTAH won't pay billions to move a hill and USGS would probably put it on a list of maybe never projects- status- "monitor and report."
USGS would create a rule that if unpleasant soluble material makes it to the pile, it needs a diaper and a cap. DONE!
ps -don't stop writing! yours are golden eggs!
or perhaps- golden gordians
So I guess the ammonia in cat pee is so dangerous to the Colorado river that we have to do something about the local house cat and mountain lion population.
Moab is a pretty area. I’ll gladly take this pile of dirt off their hands for free if I can live on it. I’ll even throw in some bonus vinegar to acidify the soil, and ammonium acetate is volatile so it will just evaporate away over time...
The Moab area is likely to have additional uranium deposits worth mining at today's prices and those that are reasonably expected in the future as we expand our use of nuclear energy. Unfortunately, uranium miners are confronted with intense opposition almost every time they try to reopen old mines or prospects near old mines.
I suspect that the sudden collapse of the US uranium mining and milling enterprise after a peak in production in 1980 was partly responsible for the animosity to uranium mining that arose in Moab and among tribes like the Navajo.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/the-miners-that-fuel-americas-nuclear-power-and-atomic-arsenal-are-di.html
They suffered from the bust and hold a grudge. They use complaints about tailings piles as leverage for clean-up projects that employ some of those who could be mining and for providing some funds to local governments that could be coming from taxing mining operations.
We would all be better served if the "clean up" was part of a productive operation to extract valuable raw materials and properly handle the resulting tailings - perhaps by putting it back in the ground where it came from in the first place.
Rod,
I dont think its anger or fear. At least not directly.
The people in Moab were not scared of the pile.
They've been living next to it for 70 years.
But it was an eyesore and
it was no longer producing any local economic benefit.
So they decided to use radiation
as a way of getting the federal taxpayer to pay to move it.
And we chumps fell for it.
Same thing happened in Hanford.
The locals happily lived with far higher dose rates
when Hanford was a going concern,
but when it shutdown, background level dose rates
suddenly became intolerable. The next thing
you know they are raking in multi-billion dollars per year,
for moving dirt from one place to another.
It's a scam and the scammers know it.
Everybody is in on the game. The local Congressmen
and state politicians, the DOE apparatchiks, the contractors,
and the work force, They are not scared or angry.
They are laughing at us.
I agree, Jack. They have no fear of the radioactivity.
They do, however, fear the lack of jobs and income that came when the mines were closed or the weapons programs were wound down. Sure, they’re exaggerating or inventing other concerns. But they just want the money to keep flowing one way or another.
I just wish it would flow more productively.