There was a stalemate on a path forward for licensing this new technology. The existing regulatory path required a license for each of the thousands of abandoned mines. This is a logistical barrier (and has been for decades) and ignores the benefits to society of remediation
We recommended an alternative approach. Ultimately the Commission accepted that option, enabling a path forward. We are still engaged on how to implement the decision in a way that provides benefits, while still protecting the public environment thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
Full acceptance letter here www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2509/...
I doubt that very many of the people who support new nuclear power plants has ever visited a uranium mine and seen how much terrain some of them have devastated.
I support new nuclear plants and have visited many sites. Compared to other sources the impacts are small. However, legacy uranium mines, primarily for weapons production had a large impact, before regulation started. Those practices are no longer used thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
Yes, underground leaching to extract uranium has certainly reduced the aboveground impacts of mining uranium. After working on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project for so long to no avail, I cannot support the expansion of the nuclear energy industry in the USA though.
Uranium mines are not bad places at all. In fact they mostly don't exist. U is pulled out of tailing a lot of the time, from other mining. It was originally "defective silver". Also the ocean has 200 billion tones of U that can be extracted without environmental damage at about the same price.
It's true that racist American's found yet another way to harm rural people and native american's by turning Uranium mining into a sloppy cottage industry. What has that to do with a nuclear power plant? Some gold is mined by slaves in Africa. Should you throw away all your gold things?