MISSION: Southwest Research and Information Center is a multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and communities, protect natural resources, ensure citizen participation, and secure environmental and social justice now and for future generations

Opponents of uranium mines appeal HRI license

Two groups' administrative challenge of a federal license allowing new uranium solution mining at three sites in Navajo communities in northwestern New Mexico continued over the winter months. The groups, Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC), have asked an administrative law panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to rescind a January 1998 license, issued to Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI), on several legal, technical, cultural, and economic grounds.

In December, attorneys for the groups filed legal briefs, expert testimony, and supporting documentation asserting that the NRC staff violated the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to carry out proper cultural resource surveys in the areas affected by the HRI project. Another brief asserted that the agency has no legal authority to issue "performance-based licenses," which allow companies to regulate themselves and make changes in their facilities without prior NRC staff permission. And in January, the groups filed four briefs that assert

  1. that HRI failed to demonstrate it can protect groundwater from mining solutions;
  2. that HRI will violate NRC limits on releases of radioactive radon gas to the local atmosphere;
  3. that HRI is not qualified financially or technically to operate the Crownpoint Uranium Project safely; and
  4. that HRI has not satisfied NRC financial surety requirements because it has not secured a performance bond and doesn't have enough cash on hand to buy one.

In February, the groups filed the last of their briefs, challenging NRC's implementation of requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act in the areas of cumulative impacts of the project, need for the project, and environmental justice.

For more information about this case, contact SRIC staff member Chris Shuey at (505) 262-1862 or by e-mail at sricdon@earthlink.net.

- Chris Shuey

For background on this topic, see "Why Navajos Resist New Uranium Mining," The Workbook, Summer 1997 (Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 52-62); "Crownpoint uranium update: Judge's ruling favors residents," The Workbook, Summer 1998 (Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 94); and "Groups file brief to challenge license to HRI Crownpoint mine; Judge shortens time frame," The Workbook, Fall/Winter 1998 (Vol. 23, No. 3/4, p. 136).

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