Natives And Environmentalists Win Another Battle Against Uranium Miners

[Bobbieo]

PINE RIDGE SD- An Atomic Licensing Board (ALB) judges’ panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ruled in favor of petitioners who filed interventions in the 10-year license renewal of Cameco, Inc.’s In Situ Leach (ISL) uranium mine near Crawford, Nebraska.

The petitioners include individuals from Nebraska and the Pine Ridge (SD) Indian Reservation; as well as the Oglala Sioux Tribe; the Oglala Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council; the Lakota nongovernmental organization Owe Aku (Bring Back the Way), and the environmental group Western Nebraska Resources Council.

“This is a huge victory for us,” says Debra White Plume, representing the Pine Ridge based nongovernmental organization Owe Aku, and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

ISL uranium mining involves massive pumping of oxygenated water into aquifers to dissolve and strip uranium from sandstone particles at the bottom of the aquifer. The process removes most of the uranium and then pumps toxic water back into the aquifer where it can mix with drinking water aquifers, rivers and streams.

http://nativeunity.blogspot.com

[bananas]

1. k&r - good news. nt