Uranium

Washington, DC - 05/06/2009 - Jane Danowitz, U.S. public lands program director at the Pew Environment Group, today issued the following statement on a decision by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management to authorize eight uranium mine exploration operations adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park.

Mining on public land surrounding the park is permitted under the nation’s 1872 mining law, which allows the mining industry access to more than 350 million acres of public lands across the West. Last June, in response to vast increases in claims-staking near the Grand Canyon, the House Natural Resources Committee called for 1 million acres of public lands to be withdrawn from new mining claims.    » read more »

Push Ban To Keep Dangerous Materials Out Of Terrorists' Hands

August 12, 2008 -- Today Representative Peter King (R-NY), Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Committee and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo warned that current restrictions on access to highly enriched uranium (HEU) are too lax and could potentially lead to terrorists acquiring the potentially lethal material. There are seven civilian facilities across the country that continue to use HEU even though safer alternative materials exist.    » read more »

20 May 2008 -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates faced tough questions from lawmakers Tuesday about the Bush administration's refusal to hold talks with Iran unless Tehran first halts its uranium enrichment program. Gates told a Senate panel that it is an open question whether such talks would succeed while President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is in power.

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on next year's Pentagon budget request, two lawmakers suggested the time has come for the United States to open wide-ranging talks with Iran - without preconditions.    » read more »

May 6, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – The French-based AREVA company has notified Idaho’s Senator Larry Craig, Governor Butch Otter, Senator Mike Crapo and Congressman Mike Simpson that it has selected Bonneville County, Idaho, as the site of its $2 billion first U.S. uranium enrichment plant.    » read more »

Legislation required to eliminate threat to domestic industry and jobs

February 1, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. -- United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard confirmed today support for a new long-term suspension agreement being signed late today between government representatives of the U.S. and Russia that sets limits on exports of uranium products, including commercial Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU), at levels that won’t threaten the workforce producing this in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois.    » read more »

Process Violates Government-to Government Consultation, Limits Public Participation

December 3, 2007 -- (SANTA FE – NM) -- In a recent letter, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson called on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to abandon the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) process for new uranium mining activities in New Mexico and across the West, citing concerns about the lack of site-specific environmental review and public participation.    » read more »

Aug. 1, 2007 -- (Santa Fe, NM) – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to reconsider its plans to create a “generic environmental impact statement” (GEIS) concerning newly proposed uranium recovery operations including in-situ leach (ISL) recovery facilities and conventional mills to be located in the western United States.

The NRC has stated that the purpose of this “generic” process is “to aid in a more efficient environmental review for each separate license application.”    » read more »

10 July 2007 -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has announced plans to revive the country's long-stalled nuclear program.

President da Silva told reporters in Sao Paulo state Tuesday that funds will be allocated for completion of another nuclear power plant and construction of a nuclear-powered submarine.

Mr. da Silva also said Brazil could become one of the few countries in the world to control the entire uranium enrichment cycle.    » read more »