The public comment period for a proposed license amendment enabling cleanup operations at the Church Rock uranium mine is now over, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The last day for comments on the agency’s draft environmental impact statement for the action was Thursday, NRC has said. The commission will evaluate all responses and release a summary of public comments alongside its final environmental review, project manager Ashley Waldron said at a virtual public information session April 29. The final report will be ready in December, Waldron said.
The proposed license amendment would allow the United Nuclear Corporation (UNC) to move waste from the Church Rock uranium mine in northwestern New Mexico to a nearby disposal site for uranium mill tailings. The project would contribute to the cleanup of the Church Rock site, where in 1979 a dam breach caused 94 million gallons of radioactive slurry to flow into the nearby Puerco River.
One prominent opponent of the proposed amendment is the Navajo Nation, which shares a border with the Church Rock site. Tribe president Jonathan Nez penned a letter to NRC April 12 saying that the current plan places uranium waste too close to existing Navajo communities in the area — the closest is less than a tenth of a mile away from the proposed disposal site, Nez said.
