Activists ask NRC to take HRI's license
Hydro Resource officials point out conflicting concerns in the petition

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining and Southwest Research and Information Center have asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to revoke Hydro Resources Inc.'s uranium mining license for HRI's proposed in-situ leach mining operation in Church Rock.

In a 300-page brief filed June 14 with the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, ENDAUM and SRIC intervenors in the case charged that an abandoned uranium mine known as Section 17, formerly operated by United Nuclear Corp. (UNC), has released contaminants that exceed federal radiation limits in off-site areas, contributing to air pollution and threatening public health.

Mark Pelizza of HRI said, "ENDAUM has requested that HRI's license be terminated as part of every filing throughout Phase I and Phase II of the hearing. In Phase I there were nine-plus filings. The NRC found HRI's project safe and upheld the license each time.

"In short, ENDAUM's request that the license be revoked is SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) in their pleadings. Because of the inherent safety of modern uranium recovery, the revocation requests have not been approved in the past and I see no change in the future," he said.

Asking the U.N.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., at a meeting Wednesday in Paris, France, asked the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to stand with the Navajo Nation and its people in their right to protect themselves against the harmful effects of radiation exposure due to uranium mining.

"Uranium has not sustained the Navajo people. It has brought only death, illness, degraded lands and polluted water supplies," President Shirley told a UNESCO official.

Pelizza said HRI's data has shown that pre-mining water quality around uranium ore is toxic due to the concentrations of dissolved uranium and uranium-related elements, including radon.

He noted data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review which states that Americans living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants.

According to ORNL, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the amount of uranium-235 alone dispersed by coal combustion is the equivalent of dozens of nuclear reactor fuel loadings. The main sources of radiation released from coal combustion include uranium and thorium and their byproducts, such as radium, radon, polonium, bismuth and lead.

"Large quantities of uranium and thorium and other radiocative species in coal ash are not being treated as radioactive waste. ... Because of regulatory differences, nuclear waste products from coal combustion are dispersed through the biosphere in an unregulated manner," the Review states.

"Collected nuclear wastes that accumulate on electric utility sites are not protected from weathering, thus exposing people to increasing quantities of radioactive isotopes through air and water movement and the food chain," the Review said.

The NRC board previously has ruled that evidence regarding airborne doses from the proposed operation indicate that the Church Rock site will not exceed regulatory requirements, Pelizza said.

Offsite radiation monitoring conducted by the Church Rock Uranium Monitoring Project in 2003 showed gamma radiation levels on Section 17 significantly higher than levels found in two areas of the Church Rock Chapter not affected by past mining.

New assessments
ENDAUM and SRIC has asked the feds to order HRI to conduct new environmental assessments of the site and submit documents related to the design of its uranium processing plant so the community would know how much radiation would be released routinely from the facility.

ENDAUM, SRIC, and two Pinedale Chapter residents are challenging the NRC staff's January 1998 decision to issue an operating license to HRI for its proposed Crownpoint Uranium Project, which includes Sections 8 and 17 located six miles north of Church Rock Village, and two other sites located 2 miles west of and in the town of Crownpoint.

The legal brief filed by the intervenors with the NRC states that high gamma radiation levels were found on the grazing lands of rancher Larry J. King, whose grazing area and families' home sites are located on Section 17.

King, a member of ENDAUM who grazes 21 head of cattle on his land, said CRUMP radiation assessments done in October 2003 "show convincingly that our land is already affected by past mining."

He noted that radiation levels significantly higher than normal background levels were also measured in other areas of Church Rock, Pinedale and Coyote Canyon chapters where people still live next to abandoned mines and a mill tailings pile that is also a federal Superfund site.

King said intervenors' experts determined that if he and his family lived on the contaminated areas year-round, that federal exposure limits would be exceeded. "My sisters and their families and I live very close to areas where contaminants from the old mine have spread. We need this mess cleaned up now, not another uranium mine to add to our risk."

According to Pelizza, "Unlike Section 8, HRI will not have a process facility on Section 17 and the radiation emissions on Section 17 will be far less than the small amount from Section 8 that has already been determined to be safe."

Conflicting concerns
"I find it interesting that the intervenors are concerned with the quantity of dissolved radon gas in the groundwater that will be released to the atmosphere yet when it comes to groundwater quality concerns, the same water is 'pristine,' " Pelizza stated in an e-mail.

"How can it be that this water is safe to circulate through one's home or for one to drink, yet is unsafe for the water to be vented to the atmosphere where radon is dispersed? Which way is it?" he asked.

Lynnea Smith of Crownpoint, administrative officer from ENDAUM, said, "HRI needs to respect the will of the Diné people and the Navajo Nation Council and withdraw its mining proposal.

"And instead of proposing to subsidize uranium mining, the Congress of the United States needs to fully fund the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program and order federal agencies to respect the jurisdiction and sovereignty of American Indian tribes. They can start by honoring the Navajo Nation's ban on uranium mining," Smith said.

The presence of abandoned mines and pollution from past uranium mining in the Church Rock area was one of the reasons the Navajo Nation Council adopted and President Joe Shirley Jr. signed into law, the Diné Natural Resources Protection Act 2005, which bans uranium mining and processing on Navajo lands, intervenors said.

During Wednesday's trip to UNESCO headquarters, President Shirley asked the United Nations to support this sovereign action to help him protect the Diné against future exposure. "There are those who would still like to weaken our sovereignty and gain access to the uranium under our land. For this reason I appeal to UNESCO," he said.