The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week ordered a halt to deliveries of waste from Superfund sites to a Utah uranium mill in San Juan County after determining its impoundment had not been operated properly, potentially resulting in excessive radon emissions.
But the mill’s operator, Energy Fuels Resources, contends the order was the result of a mix up within the EPA and that the waste-handling facility at White Mesa outside Blanding has been operating safely.
“There is no violation, much less an ‘egregious’ one,” said company spokesman Curtis Moore.
The White Mesa facility is better known as the nation’s last operating uranium mill, but it also stores dangerous waste from out-of-state cleanups. This waste often contains trace amounts of uranium and vanadium that Energy Fuels can extract by reprocessing the material. It also can emits radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer...