Native American Civilization Bites the Nuclear Dust at White Mesa, Utah
The settlement of White Mesa, Utah is located twelve miles south of Blanding, Utah
on U.S. Highway 191. As the Utah component of the Ute Mountain Ute
Reservation, its 2000 census data indicated a population of 277 people.
Over ninety-eight percent of the population was Native American. By
the 2010 census, the population at White Mesa had fallen over twelve
percent to 242 people. By then, the population had aged, with fewer
children and young people living there. In 2000, over fifty percent of
the population lived below the poverty line. The only retail business
at White Mesa is the reservation-owned White Mesa Travel Center, which
includes as gas station and convenience store.
About halfway between White Mesa and Blanding, Utah, sits the Denison Mines White Mesa Mill. First opened in 1980 by Energy Fuels Corporation,
White Mesa Mill went bankrupt in 1997. At that time, International
Uranium (USA) Corp. purchased the mill. Later, Denison Mines purchased
the mill and now operates it as a wholly owned subsidiary. The White
Mesa Mill has the distinction of being the only conventional uranium
ore-processing mill in the United States. Unobtrusive, when viewed from
the highway, the facility covers 3840 acres of land. In addition to the
mill itself are huge earthworks and retention ponds. In 2002, The Canyon Country Zephyr named the White Mesa Mill its “#1 Secret Place of Canyon Country”.
Currently, the mill accepts radioactive and toxic wastes from around the
nation, and then stores them onsite. When the gathered stockpiles of
nuclear tailings and residues are sufficient, the mill goes into
operation and processes them. With the addition of newly mined ores,
the mill has seen continuous operation since 2005. Since there is no
rail access to the mill, all materials arrive at the site by truck.
When you are sitting at an open-air café in Moab, Utah
watching huge multi-axel tractor-trailer rigs roll through town, they
may be loaded with nuclear contaminated materials destined for White
Mesa. It is interesting that those huge, covered trailers display no
hazardous or nuclear placards.
Although the processing plant has a separate vanadium-processing loop, the main product of the White Mesa Mill is triuranium octoxide (U3O8), which is a compound of uranium. Despite its olive green color, U3O8 is a form of yellowcake,
which may contain up to eighty percent uranium oxide. Triuranium
octoxide manufactured at White Mesa Mill is transported offsite for
further enrichment. Its ultimate use is as fuel for nuclear power
plants. With further enrichment, it could become weapons-grade material.
In May 2008, the Division of Air Quality
(DAQ), within the Utah Division of Environmental Quality conducted an
inspection and issued a report regarding air quality compliance at White
Mesa Mill. Among other things, the DAQ inspection looked at how much
ten-micron particulate matter (PM10)
went up the stacks and into the atmosphere. Although permitted for up
to .4 pounds of PM10 per hour, during inspection each yellowcake
scrubber/dryer onsite emitted “only” .12 pounds per hour. If operated
continuously for one year, those two dryer/scrubbers alone would emit
over one ton of unknown, possibly radioactive particulates into the
air. Other sources claim that the mill annually emits 62 tons of sulfur
dioxide, 109 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 254 tons of particulates.
Propane usage onsite is several million gallons per year.
Also
discovered during the 2008 inspection was a non-compliant baghouse (air
filtration facility) associated with lab operations at the site. After
notification of non-compliance, Denison Mines estimated that the
baghouse emitted one hundred ten pounds
of PM10 particulates per year. Although there was no corroboration of
those estimates, the Utah DAQ did not challenge company findings.
Because of the supposedly small amount of released particulates, the
DAQ did not fine Denison Mines for non-compliance.
After thirty years of operation, much of the mill’s original equipment
is still in use, or disuse, as the case may be. For example, the 2008
DAQ inspection determined that the emergency electrical generator
onsite had last operated in 1996. Despite the requirement that an
emergency generator be available during power interruptions, DAQ did
not fine Denison Mines for lack of compliance. Ironically, the DAQ
inspection report used inoperability as a reason to not penalize
the operator. In the inspection report, there is no mention of the need
to fix or replace the derelict emergency generator. Under the
circumstances, we can only hope that future power interruptions will
not result in site contamination or release of airborne particulates.
Also missing, misplaced or misidentified during the inspection was a Bartlett-Snow rotary calciner.
The DAQ report indicated, “Company contacts were not aware of where
the rotary calciner and control equipment were located.” That surprised
me, since a rotary calciner shown at the Bartlett-Snow website required
a three-axel flatbed trailer to carry it. I checked eBay, and as of
this writing, the only used rotary calciner listed there carried a price
of $35,000. If I were interested in that unit, I would bring a
dosimeter with me during the inspection.
If you Google “White Mesa Uranium Mill”, you will find a host of
articles decrying large-scale trucking of nuclear waste to the mill, as
well as its spotty environmental record. In 2008, the Utah DAQ found
missing, inoperable and unpermitted equipment at the mill. In their
final report, DAQ’s lack of urgency and enforcement reminded me of lax
oversight at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant prior to March 2011. When the tsunami flooded all of the emergency generators at the plant, a cascade of failures began, leading to a nuclear fuel meltdown on May 13, 2011.
The
Denison Mines White Mesa Mill is not in danger of a nuclear meltdown.
The yellowcake produced there is not fissionable. Still, in its final
recommendations for their next inspection, the Utah DAQ report suggested
in typical understated fashion, “Bring a respirator – It may be needed
in certain areas of the facility”.
On June 3, 2011, I rolled up the front gate at White Mesa Mill, which
appeared to be in full operation. Visible smoke issued from two large
exhaust stacks on the east side of the mill. Although the 2008 DAQ
report indicated that no single source of particulates at the mill
should exceed twenty percent opacity, to me the visible smoke
completely obscured the blue sky beyond it. Admittedly, I did not have
proper optical measuring equipment that day. Still, a simple webcam
pointing at the stacks from a position that shows a solid background
should solve that problem. If asked, I would be happy to supply a free
webcam system to the Utah DAQ. With the installation of a solid black
“billboard” behind each stack, DAQ compliance officers could remotely
monitor the opacity of released particulates. If the mill were in
compliance, Denison Mines could use the calibrated webcam images to
prove it.
Finally,
what shall become of the poorest, least represented and closest
proximity residents to the White Mesa Mill? If trends identified in the
2000 and 2010 census prevail, the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation at White
Mesa will continue its decline. Once a thriving settlement that
featured paved roads, utilities and framed houses, the neighborhood at
White Mesa is now derelict and decaying. A quick drive through “town”
shows many abandoned homes. With six square miles of nuclear and
chemical waste nearby, the resale market for property at White Mesa,
let alone Blanding, Utah is fading like the smoke from White Mesa Mill.
Since the dry climate in Southeastern Utah slows decay, these relics of Native American culture might well be standing at White Mesa one thousand years from now. What will future archeologists think when they discover an abandoned ruin near an abandoned uranium mill and a large pile of nuclear contaminated waste?
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By James McGillis at 05:00 PM | Environment | Comments (0) | Link
