The U.S. uranium mining industry is looking to a revival under President Donald Trump. Environmental reviews of mining operations would normally take months or even years. But after Trump declared a “national energy emergency,” it took just 11 days for the U.S.
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Here's how you can set limits or know it's time to leaveAP News AlertsAP PHOTOS: Players and fans prepare for the Champions League finalThe World in PicturesSwiss glacier collapse renews focus on risks of climate change as glaciers retreat around the worldCDC removes language that says healthy kids and pregnant women should get COVID shotsEasily distracted? How to improve your attention spanMusk faces big challenges as he leaves Washington for the business worldFaizan Zaki overcomes a shocking, self-inflicted flub and wins the Scripps National Spelling BeeIrán acumula más uranio cercano a grado armamentístico, dice organismo de la ONUA través del teatro, estos artistas celebran el legado afrodescendiente en MéxicoA uranium ore pile is the first to be mined at the Energy Fuels Inc. uranium Pinyon Plain Mine Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, near Tusayan, Ariz. U.S. Energy Corp. resident project manager Daryl Winters locks the gate, on July 12, 2006, at the Shootaring Mill north of Ticaboo, Utah. Workers stand inside UR Energy’s Lost Creek uranium production facility in Sweetwater County, Wyo, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. A uranium ore pile is the first to be mined at the Energy Fuels Inc. uranium Pinyon Plain Mine Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, near Tusayan, Ariz. A uranium ore pile is the first to be mined at the Energy Fuels Inc. uranium Pinyon Plain Mine Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, near Tusayan, Ariz. U.S. Energy Corp. resident project manager Daryl Winters locks the gate, on July 12, 2006, at the Shootaring Mill north of Ticaboo, Utah. U.S. Energy Corp. resident project manager Daryl Winters locks the gate, on July 12, 2006, at the Shootaring Mill north of Ticaboo, Utah. Workers stand inside UR Energy’s Lost Creek uranium production facility in Sweetwater County, Wyo, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. Workers stand inside UR Energy’s Lost Creek uranium production facility in Sweetwater County, Wyo, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. SALT LAKE CITY — In the southeastern Utah desert famous for red rock arches and canyon labyrinths, the long-dormant uranium mining industry is looking to revive under President Donald Trump. Hundreds of abandoned uranium mines dot the West’s arid landscapes, hazardous reminders of the promise and peril of nuclear power during the Cold War. Now, one mine that the Trump administration fast-tracked for regulatory approval could reopen for the first time since the 1980s.to review plans to reopen a project like Anfield Energy’s Velvet-Wood mine 35 miles south of Moab. But the bureau’s regulators green-lit the project in just 11 days under a “national energy emergency” Trump has declared that allows expedited environmental reviews for energy projects. More permits and approvals will be needed, plus site work to get the mine operating again. And the price of uranium would have to rise enough to make domestic production financially sustainable. If that happens, it would mean revival — and jobs — to an industry that locally has been moribund since the Ronald Reagan era.Poland holds a pivotal presidential runoff influenced by Trump, the far right and the war in UkraineInterior Secretary Doug Burgum More fast approvals appear likely. Trump’s order also applies to oil, gas, coal, biofuel and hydropower projects — but not renewable energy — on federal lands.Global uranium prices are double what they were at a low point seven years ago and, for the past year, the U.S. has. The U.S. imports about 98% of the uranium it uses to generate 30% of the world’s nuclear energy. More than two-thirds of U.S. imports come from the world’s top three uranium-mining countries: Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan. Less government regulation won’t spur more U.S. uranium mining by itself. The market matters. And while spot-market prices are up from several years ago, they’re down about a third from their recent high in early 2024. While some new uranium mining and processing projects have been announced, their number falls far short of a surge. That suggests prices need to rise — and stay there — for a true industry revival, said John Uhrie, a former uranium executive who now works in the cement industry. “Until the price goes up dramatically, you’re not going to be able to actually put these places into operation,” Uhrie said. “You need significant capital on the ground.”Anfield Energy, a Canadian company, also looks to reopen the Shootaring Canyon uranium mill in southern Utah near Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It closed in the early 1980s. A uranium mill turns raw ore into yellowcake, a powdery substance later processed elsewhere into nuclear fuel. Anfield officials did not return messages seeking comment on plans to reopen the mill and the Velvet-Wood mine.And just off U.S. 191 in southeastern Utah is a hub of the industry, Uranium Fuels’ White Mesa mill, the country’s only uranium mill still in operation.These days, Moab is a desert tourism hot spot bustling with outdoor enthusiasts. But the town of 5,200 has a deeper history with uranium. Nods to Moab’s post-World War II mining heyday can been spotted around town — the Atomic Hair Salon isn’t just named for its blowout hairstyles. The biggest reminder is the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project, a 480-acre site just outside town. The decades-long, $1 billion U.S. Department of Energy effort to haul off toxic tailings that were leaching into the Colorado River upstream from the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead should wrap up within five more years. That mill’s polluting legacy makes some Moab residents wary of restarting uranium mining and processing, especially after the Trump administration cut short their ability to weigh in on the Velvet-Wood mine plans. “This was a process I would have been involved in,” said Sarah Fields, director of the local group Uranium Watch. “They provided no opportunity for the public to say, ‘You need to look at this, you need to look at that.’” Grand Canyon Trust, a group critical of the Pinyon Plain mine as a danger to groundwater, points out that the U.S. nuclear industry isn’t at risk of losing access to uranium. “This is all being done under the assumption there is some energy emergency and that is just not true,” said Amber Reimondo, the group’s energy director.Hundreds of miles to the north, other nuclear energy projects point to the U.S. industry’s future.outside Kemmerer in western Wyoming that could, in theory, meet demand for carbon-free power at lower costs and with less construction time than conventional reactor units. Meanwhile, about 40% of uranium mined in the U.S. in 2024 came from four Wyoming “in-situ” mines that use wells to dissolve uranium in underground deposits and pump it to the surface without having to dig big holes or send miners underground. Similar mines in Texas and Nebraska and stockpiled ore processed at White Mesa accounted for the rest.Powering electric cars and computing technology will require more electricity in the years ahead. Nuclear power offers a zero-carbon, round-the-clock option. Meeting the demand for nuclear fuel domestically is another matter. With prices higher, almost 700,000 pounds of yellowcake was produced in the U.S. in 2024 — up more than a dozen-fold from the year before but still far short of the 32 million pounds imported into the U.S. Even if mining increases, it’s not clear that U.S. capacity to turn the ore into fuel would keep pace, said Uhrie, the former uranium mining executive. “Re-establishing a viable uranium industry from soup to nuts — meaning from mining through processing to yellow cake production, to conversion, to enrichment to produce nuclear fuel — remains a huge lift,” Uhrie said.Schoenbaum is a government and politics reporter based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also covers general news in the Rockies and LGBTQ+ rights policies in U.S. statehouses.Judge refuses to temporarily block the Trump administration from removing Copyright Office directorTaylor Swift has regained control of her music, buys back first 6 albums
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