{"id":350202,"date":"2018-02-28T17:11:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T16:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/before-the-us-approves-new-uranium-mining-consider-its-toxic-legacy\/"},"modified":"2018-02-28T17:11:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T16:11:06","slug":"before-the-us-approves-new-uranium-mining-consider-its-toxic-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/before-the-us-approves-new-uranium-mining-consider-its-toxic-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Before the US Approves New Uranium Mining, Consider Its Toxic Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Uranium — the raw material for nuclear power and nuclear weapons — is having a moment in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Companies such as\u00a0Energy Fuels, Inc.<\/a>\u00a0have played\u00a0well-publicized roles<\/a>in lobbying the Trump administration to reduce federal protection for\u00a0public lands<\/a>\u00a0with uranium deposits. The Defense Department’s Nuclear Posture Review calls for\u00a0new weapons production<\/a>\u00a0to expand the US nuclear arsenal, which could spur new domestic uranium mining. And the Interior Department is advocating more domestic uranium production, along with other materials identified as “critical minerals<\/a>.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

What would expanded uranium mining in the US mean at the local level? I have studied the legacies of past uranium mining and milling in Western states for over a decade. My\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0examines dilemmas faced by uranium communities caught between harmful legacies of previous mining booms and the potential promise of new economic development.<\/p>\n

These people and places are invisible to most Americans, but they helped make the United States an economic and military superpower. In my view, we owe it to them to learn from past mistakes and make more informed and sustainable decisions about possibly renewing uranium production than our nation made in the past.<\/p>\n

\"(Image:(Image: National Energy Education Development Project<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mining Regulations Have Failed to Protect Public Health<\/h2>\n

Today most of the uranium that powers US nuclear reactors is imported. But many communities still suffer impacts of\u00a0uranium mining<\/a>and milling that occurred for decades to fuel the US-Soviet nuclear arms race. These include\u00a0environmental contamination<\/a>,\u00a0toxic spills<\/a>, abandoned mines, under-addressed\u00a0cancer and disease clusters<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0illnesses<\/a>\u00a0that citizens link to uranium exposure despite federal denials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As World War II phased into the Cold War, US officials rapidly increased uranium production from the 1940s to the 1960s. Regulations were minimal to nonexistent and largely unenforced, even though the\u00a0US Public Health Service<\/a>\u00a0knew that…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uranium — the raw material for nuclear power and nuclear weapons — is having a moment in the spotlight. Companies such as\u00a0Energy Fuels, Inc.\u00a0have played\u00a0well-publicized rolesin lobbying the Trump administration to reduce federal protection for\u00a0public lands\u00a0with uranium deposits. The Defense Department’s Nuclear Posture Review calls for\u00a0new weapons production\u00a0to expand the US nuclear arsenal, which could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-350202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}