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Uranium milling’s legacy of cancer

One family who left the area knows well the paradox uranium has brought to the region. They lived in Uravan in the 1960s and paid a tragic price for living in the old mill town. Three daughters died of cancer. The parents each have lost cancer-ridden body organs. They still have ties to the area and requested anonymity given the contentious nature of the uranium debate in the valley.

Is It Time to Restart the Uranium Industry in the U.S.?  Scientific American By Nathan Rice and The Daily Climate June 29, 2010 A proposal to build the nation’s first uranium mill in 25 years has divided opinions “…….The demolished company milling town of Uravan, 16 miles from Naturita, shows this flip side of uranium. Born as a radium mining site in the early 1900s, it became a company town in 1935, when U.S. Vanadium Corp. built a mill and expanded the mine. Its output fueled the Manhattan Project and the Cold War’s nuclear arms race. But few measures were in place to protect workers, residents or the environment from uranium’s harm, and the town was evacuated in 1984 due to extensive radioactive contamination……… In August 2009, a federal appeals court ruled against past residents of the mill town who sought compensation for their illnesses, siding with Union Carbide……

The Cotter uranium mill in Cañon City, Colorado, (another federal Superfund clean-up site) has had 99 violations in the last 10 years, according to the group Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste. Leaking tailings ponds have contaminated area groundwater……….

Mill opponents also cite potential impacts to air and water quality, wildlife habitat and the cumulative stresses of increased mining in the area – issues they claim are not sufficiently addressed in the permitting process.

Sheep Mountain Alliance, an environmental group in nearby Telluride, sued Montrose County for issuing a special use permit for the mill on agricultural land, alleging they broke zoning laws and held private meetings with developers. The Alliance, along with two Utah environmental groups, has also filed opposition to Energy Fuels’ water rights application, claiming impacts to the Dolores and Colorado Rivers. The mill would use about 150 gallons per minute to process uranium ore…….

A 2009 study by the Sonoran Institute predicts that uranium development could hinder tourism in the nearby resort town of Gateway, Colorado, by degrading natural and scenic resources…….

One family who left the area knows well the paradox uranium has brought to the region. They lived in Uravan in the 1960s and paid a tragic price for living in the old mill town. Three daughters died of cancer. The parents each have lost cancer-ridden body organs. They still have ties to the area and requested anonymity given the contentious nature of the uranium debate in the valley.

Is It Time to Restart the Uranium Industry in the U.S.?: Scientific American

June 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, Uranium, USA | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radioactive, uranium