WASHINGTON D.C. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it is withdrawing a proposed rule regarding “in-situ” uranium recovery. The Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents companies that mine uranium and process it into fuel for use in reactors, applauded the decision.

In-situ means drilling a well into a uranium deposit and injecting a liquid that dissolves some of the uranium and brings it to the surface, where it can be purified and sent for processing into nuclear fuel. The in-situ process entails minimal risk. To date, such operations have had no impact on drinking water, which is the subject of the rule. 

NEI opposed this proposal when the EPA issued it in the last days of the Obama administration. 

“The proposal was unnecessary, since no documented risks to the public or the environment have been identified,’’ said Doug True, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of NEI. “Such mining is already regulated under a different federal law, the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978, and by most of the states where in-situ recovery occurs. The EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board said the rule was not needed, and the structure of the rule posed legal problems. There is no benefit in these duplicative, unnecessary regulations.”