United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 97-179 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Friday, December 5, 1997)

NRC ISSUES SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT

ON NEW MEXICO URANIUM MINING PROJECT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a safety evaluation report on the

proposal by Hydro Resources, Inc. (HRI) to construct and operate the Crownpoint Uranium

Solution Mining Project in New Mexico.

The project would involve the extraction of uranium at three sites, located near the

towns of Church Rock and Crownpoint, in McKinley County northeast of Gallup. It would use a

process known as in-situ leach uranium mining, or solution mining. In the in-situ mining

process, wells are drilled into rock formations containing uranium ore. Water, with added

oxygen and sodium bicarbonate, is injected down the wells to mobilize the uranium in the rock

so that it can be pumped to the surface, where a processing plant separates the uranium from

the solution. Once it is dried, the resulting uranium, known as “yellowcake,” is packaged in

drums and transported off-site to other processing plants for conversion into fuel for nuclear

reactors.

The safety evaluation report concludes that, if certain specified conditions are met,

issuance of a license to HRI will not be inimical to public health and safety or to the common

and defense and security, and will meet the requirements of NRC regulations and the Atomic

Energy Act.

Earlier the NRC, in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S.

Bureau of Indian Affairs, published draft and final environmental impact statements on the

proposed Crownpoint project. The NRC, also in cooperation with the other two federal

agencies, held three public meetings in Crownpoint and Church Rock, New Mexico, on

February 22 and 23, 1995.

The final statement concluded that, from an environmental perspective, the appropriate

action is to issue the requested license and leases authorizing Hydro Resources to proceed

with the project.

The publication of the safety evaluation report and the final environmental impact

statement provides a basis for NRC to issue a license to HRI. The agency staff plans to issue

the license 30 days after issuance of the safety evaluation report on December 4.

In response to a Federal Register notice in November 1994 offering an opportunity for a
public hearing on the proposed project, eight petitioners requested a hearing: Zuni Mountain

Coalition, Bernadine Martin, Water Information Network, Dine’ CARE, Southwest Research and

Information Center, Mervyn Tilden, Grace and Marilyn Sam, and Eastern Navaho Dine’ Against

Uranium Mining, Inc.

An NRC administrative law judge, appointed to rule on the petitions, has held a decision

on a hearing in abeyance until the NRC staff completed its review of HRI’s license application,

issued the final environmental impact statement and safety evaluation report, and decided

whether it supported granting or denying the license application. The judge determined that

holding the proceeding in abeyance would remove any possibility that issues developed on the

basis of an incomplete hearing file would have to be relitigated as the hearing file was updated

or that resources would be unnecessarily expended if the license application was denied.

Under Part 2 of the Commission’s regulations, the filing or granting of a request for a

hearing or a petition to intervene need not delay NRC staff action regarding an application for a

licensing action for a facility of this type.

Copies of the safety evaluation report may be obtained by writing to the NRC

Publications Section, Attention: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing

Office, P.O. Box 37082, Washington, DC 20013-7082. A copy will also be available for copying

at the NRC Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, N.W., Washington, DC.

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