Here’s the letter and order from Chris Urbina at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment:
Attached is my signed decision regarding the matter of Energy Fuels radioactive materials license and the pending appeal by Sheep Mountain Alliance. It is a legal document. On January 14, 2013, Judge Richard Dana decided that the hearing conducted was sufficient to meet the requirements of the Colorado Administrative Procedure Act. These decisions clear the way for the department’s final decision regarding the pending radioactive materials license application to be issued in April 2013.
Even though the Sheep Mountain Alliance appeal is being denied, the department will give serious consideration to the testimony provided in this hearing as the department decides whether to issue the license and what mitigation, if any, to include if the license is granted. We have listened, and will continue to listen, to diverse and comprehensive testimony from all interested parties regarding this application, from community members impacted by the potential licensing of the mill; from people who want jobs that would be created by a new mill; from environmentalists who want to know that public health and the environment will be protected; and from industry that wants to develop natural resources.
While there is a disagreement on the nature of this hearing process, there is no disagreement that it helped the state acquire additional information and perspectives useful to the department’s decision.
The license, if approved, will protect public health and the environment. The department’s decision will be based upon an extensive review of the application, and associated documents and testimony, including documents and testimony submitted in the November hearing, and a consideration of the short- and long-term impacts of the proposed mill, including radiological and non-radiological impacts to water, air and wildlife, as well as economic, social
and transportation-related impacts.
From The Denver Post:
Urbina’s executive order clears the way for a final decision on Energy Fuels request for a radioactive materials license for a proposed uranium and vanadium mill near Nucla. That decision is expected in April.
From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):
A state official on Thursday rejected an environmental organization’s appeal of a license for a uranium mill near Naturita, but stopped short of issuing a new permit.
The Telluride-based Sheep Mountain Alliance last year appealed a decision by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and a Denver District judge invalidated the license. As part of the ruling, the department was required to conduct hearings in which witnesses could be cross-examined, a process that was undertaken over several days last year in Nucla.
The decision by Dr. Christopher Urbina, executive director of the Health Department, leaves the question of whether to issue a radioactive materials-handling permit to Energy Fuels Inc. That decision will be taken up by the department’s radiation-management program, which is to make a decision in April on whether to reissue the permit.
Energy Fuels is planning to build a $150 million mill, the first to be built in the United States in three decades, near Naturita.
From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):
A favorable action by state regulators has the backers of a planned uranium mill in Montrose County saying that long-term economics also augur well for the mill.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is to decide in April whether to issue a radioactive materials-handling permit to Energy Fuels Inc., but on Thursday it rejected an appeal of a previous license by an environmental group. The decision, however, requires regulators within the department to consider comments made over several days last fall before an administrative law judge, Richard Dana. The ruling is “another step forward in the process,” Energy Fuels spokesman Curtis Moore said, noting that the company expects continued opposition from environmental groups.
The Sheep Mountain Alliance was pleased that the agency is required to consider evidence raised at the hearing in the fall. “In light of this damning evidence on the potential impacts of the Pinon Ridge Mill and the lack of a thorough and independent review process by the state, we believe they have no other option than to deny the license after a second more professionally conducted review process,” Director Hilary White said.
Environmental groups are “free to do what they wish,” Moore said, but “it seems to me they are wasting their members’ money and resources when they could be solving real environmental issues.”
Energy Fuels remains committed to constructing the $150 million mill, Moore said, noting that while the current market for uranium is “soft,” or about $43 a pound, the medium- to long-term economics of uranium “look better now than they even did pre-Fukushima.”
A tidal wave in 2011 swamped a nuclear reactor in the Fukushima province of Japan, stoking fears of nuclear power around the world and causing the price of uranium to fall dramatically.