Uranium-bearing material from Japan has reached Utah. Is it radioactive waste or fuel for clean energy?at two Japan Atomic Energy Agency facilities in Honshu, Japan. The White Mesa Mill — located in Blanding and owned byAfter the company culls the uranium from the material, they store the waste on-site in containment ponds. Environmentalists fear that waste threatens local water supplies, air quality and public health.
Shipping records show that the shipment from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency traveled across the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to Everett, Wash. in January. Then, the material was trucked over 1,000 miles to the White Mesa Mill. “We recover uranium — a valuable clean energy resource — from various feed materials, which most people would think is a good thing ,” the Energy Fuels spokesperson wrote in an email.. The company said that the shipments are natural ores and “equivalent feed materials” that should be regulated the same as ore transported to the mill from uranium mines.
“The uranium from these shipments will be used to power U.S. homes, schools and businesses,” said Curtis Moore, Energy Fuels’ senior vice president of marketing and corporate development. “As with the uranium ore we process, tailings from this shipment are safely stored in specially lined impoundments that are continuously monitored.”