New reactors could revive U.S. uranium mining — and concerns about its ‘toxic legacy’

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The decline of the uranium industry was a welcome reprieve for communities that have most acutely felt the long-lasting health and environmental effects of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Editor's note: This report is part of 'Hunting Clean Energy in the West,' a series by Lee Enterprises' Public Service Team Reporter Ted McDermott that examines efforts across the West to meet looming deadlines to decarbonize the region's power grid. Subsequent articles will examine hydrogen, wind and solar initiatives.

People are also reading… That was bad for the uranium industry, but the long decline was a welcome reprieve for communities — many of them Indigenous — that have most acutely felt the long-lasting health and environmental effects of the nuclear fuel cycle.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine came as the federal government was pushing for the development of new reactors to meet a 2035 target to end carbon pollution from the electric grid. And some of the advanced reactor designs that the U.S.

The renewed demand for domestic uranium has already been felt at the United States’ largely languishing uranium mines, and Peninsula Energy is among the mine operators looking to restart. As the industry gears up, the government’s plans to create a domestic supply of uranium and to produce highly enriched uranium have already drawn pushback from Indigenous and environmental groups.

“Before we start having eyes on the prize for the next wave of nuclear energy, let’s figure out the damage that has already been done and how to not do it again and how to help the people that have been most impacted,” Clow said. “That is what is most profound when I hear people say, ‘Oh, nuclear energy is the solution to our climate crisis.

The letter argued that “the US already has a devastating radioactive and toxic legacy of uranium contamination that disproportionately affects Indigenous communities” and that “the dangers of uranium operations are far from theoretical and the need to avoid exacerbating harm is clear.”

 

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