From the Telluride Daily Planet (Matthew Beaudin):
Right now, the CDPHE is wading through an application from Energy Fuels, Inc., that would erect a uranium mill at the bottom of western Colorado’s Paradox Valley, a high trench that cuts through red-rock walls between Telluride and Moab…
State officials are examining plans for the acreage, radiation protection protocols, decommissioning plans, financial assurances and environmental impacts. The state has repeatedly asked Energy Fuels to fill in blanks in its application — something CDPHE spokesperson Warren Smith said is a normal part of the review and not any indication of a poor proposal. In one correspondence between the state and Energy Fuels, state regulators are told by the company that they will beef up tailings protections, with deeper coverage and a liner with a radon barrier. “As you can see, there’s lots of clarifying questions that we ask throughout the process,” Smith said. “There’s a broad scope of information that we require.”
Colorado is an “agreement state,” meaning the state has an agreement with the federal Department of Energy that transfers reviewing authority to the state itself. “Our statutes and regulations must be at least as stringent as federal regulations,” Smith said. State rules can exceed federal ones, “and in some cases, they do.”