Daniel Schaefer: “H.R. 2967 reauthorizes the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act, the 1978 law which has been cleaning up the…”

“H.R. 2967 reauthorizes the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act, the 1978 law which has been cleaning up the radioactive contamination created by uranium milling operations. The program has been a valuable and generally successful endeavor, and has already completed remediation at a number of uranium milling sites, many of which had been abandoned and at which mill tailings were simply left out on the open ground. At title I sites, all of the contamination was generated by Federal activities. For the most part, the tailings were created in the process of obtaining supplies of uranium for the Manhattan Project, which produced America's first nuclear weapons. It is fitting that the Federal Government should be responsible for cleaning up these wastes, and the statute maintains a 90 percent Federal, 10 percent State split for remediation of these sites. Title II sites encompass a range of areas which have combined tailings of both Federal and private responsibility. At those sites, the private owners remediated the contamination, then are reimbursed by the Government for that share of tailings which can be traced to Federal activities. The bill before us extends the authority for title I cleanup from 1996 to 1998. DOE is confident that all its title I sites can be cleaned up by that time. The bill also incorporates a number of changes to ensure that the program can continue to function in an efficient and responsible manner.”