Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action

The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project was created by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to monitor the cleanup of uranium mill tailings.

Removal of uranium contamination at an UMTRA Project site

In 1978 the US Congress passed the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) which was tasked the DOE with the responsibility of stabilizing, disposing, and controlling uranium mill tailings and other contaminated material at uranium mill processing spread across 10 states and at approximately 5,200 associated properties.[1] Under UMTRCA, the DOE created UMTRA to decommission 24 uranium mills and dispose of their residual mill tailings.[2] These are typically stored in an engineered disposal cell, described in the 1995 "40 CFR Part 192". designed to reduce groundwater contamination, as well as withstanding precipitation and flood events, withstanding "maximum credible earthquakes", and preferably having a design lifespan of 1000 years. The covers are also designed to substantially reduce radon gas emission. The disposal cells are located at the mill site or within 5 miles, if possible.[3][4]


References
  1. "Fact Sheet on Uranium Mill Tailings". US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fact Sheets. 2006. Archived from the original on 2010-12-16. Retrieved 2011-01-26.
  2. "Uranium Mill Sites Under the UMTRA Project". Energy Information Administration Independent Statistics and Analysis. 1999. Retrieved 2016-05-23.
  3. "UMTRCA Disposal Cell Site Selection Process (Document No. S15077)" (PDF). nrc.gov. July 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  4. "40 CFR Part 192: Proposed Rulemaking and Background Documents | US EPA". US EPA. Retrieved 6 July 2020.


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