The Department of Justice came to terms with two energy companies to remove uranium mine waste from Navajo Nation land located in New Mexico.
“The United Nuclear Corporation and General Electric Company have agreed to a consent decree with the United States, Navajo Nation, and the State of New Mexico under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as the Superfund law,” read a release from the Department of Justice.
The deal calls for both companies to “excavate and remove approximately one million cubic yards of uranium mine waste from the Northeast Church Rock Superfund Site.” The location was a former uranium mine located near Gallup, New Mexico, in the Navajo Nation’s Pinedale Chapter. The mine was operated by the United Nuclear Corporation between 1967 and 1982.
“These mining operations left behind uranium mine waste piles, several former ponds and former mill tailings storage areas,” the DOJ noted. “Although EPA has required several shorter-term cleanup actions to be completed at the NECR Mine site, conditions at the site continue to present a risk of releases of hazardous substances to the air, surrounding soils, sediments, surface water, and groundwater.”
The waste will be transferred to the UNC mill site, according to the Department of Justice. The removal process is projected to take over ten years to complete and cost approximately $63 million.
“Today’s settlement will achieve tangible remediation of the Mine and Mill Sites and protect human health from radioactive wastes,” said Adam Gustafson, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Consistent with this administration’s enforcement principles and priorities, the settlement follows CERCLA’s text, focuses on the affected locations, and assigns the cost of cleanup to the settling defendants, not taxpayers.”
During the Cold War, New Mexico’s uranium mines played an integral role in developing energy sources and weapons. The industry has been essentially dormant since the 1990s, but the Trump administration has renewed interest in using uranium and nuclear energy. In May, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to “reinvigorate the nuclear industrial base.”
“It took nearly 40 years for the United States to add the same amount of nuclear capacity as another developed nation added in 10 years,” read Trump’s directive. “Further, as American deployment of advanced reactor designs has waned, 87% of nuclear reactors installed worldwide since 2017 are based on designs from two foreign countries. At the same time, the Nation’s nuclear fuel cycle infrastructure has severely atrophied, leaving the United States heavily dependent on foreign sources of uranium as well as uranium enrichment and conversion services. These trends cannot continue.”
SHEINBAUM INSISTS NO US ‘INVASION’ OF MEXICO AS TRUMP SENDS MILITARY AFTER CARTELS
New Mexico, with 64 million tons, has the second-highest known uranium reserves in the U.S. after Wyoming, which has 145 million tons. Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and Utah are the other states with significant amounts of uranium, combining for 37 million tons. Yet, with all these reserves, ensuring the cleanup and removal of hazardous waste is vital to future nuclear energy development in the country. Failure to do so could result in the release “of hazardous substances to the air, surrounding soils, sediments, surface water and groundwater.”
“This settlement sends a message that federal, sovereign, and state governments can come together to improve the lives of both New Mexican and Navajo Nation residents,” said James Kenney, secretary for the New Mexico Environment Department. “It’s the result of our regulatory partners’ unwavering commitment to addressing the long-standing risks faced by communities impacted by uranium mining waste.”