WNA reports that uranium mining in the U.S. today is undertaken by few companies on a relatively small scale because of the low U prices today. Uranium exploration is undertaken by many companies, often going over areas that were mined in the 1950s to the 1980s. Uranium production is from one mill (White Mesa, Utah) fed by four or five underground mines and several in-situ leach (ISL) operations.
Most US uranium-producing states are agreement states vis a vis the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and have authority to issue permits and regulate uranium mining and milling. NRC role is then minimal. In February 2015 Wyoming, the major uranium production state, passed legislation to make it an agreement state, along with all the other uranium-producing states. It expects to achieve this status in 2018. Five of the six operating uranium recovery facilities under NRC oversight in 2016 are in Wyoming.
Under a 2010 agreement, the NRC collaborates with the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on environmental assessment of mine proposals. A majority of U.S. uranium production comes from Wyoming Powder River Basin. However, land access is partly controlled by the U.S. government, and in 2011 the Interior Secretary issued an order banning new hardrock uranium mining in about 4,000 square km of land in Arizona for 20 years, which sterilized 145,000 tU of known resources according to the NEI and also much prospective ground.
The industry contends that uranium exploration and mining here would not compromise the Grand Canyon watershed. The land is not within the Grand Canyon National Park or the buffer zone protecting the national park. The industry contends that that the land withdrawal is not justified by information in the Interior Department environmental assessment, and is an arbitrary agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, and that it fails to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.
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