Native Sun News Today: Oglala Sioux Tribe keeps up fight against uranium mine

Friday, February 8, 2019

Uranium company keeps license; OST keeps fighting

By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Today Contributing Editor
nativesunnews.today

ROCKVILLE, MD - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled January 31 to leave in place a license for southern Black Hills uranium mining challenged for eight years by the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

If license-holder Azarga Uranium Corp., formerly Powertech USA Inc., defeats the tribe and local litigants, the license can be used to undertake South Dakota’s first-ever in situ mining and milling of uranium.

The activity is slated for the 10,000-acre Dewey Burdock project site located on unceded 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty land in Custer and Fall River counties adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and upstream on Cheyenne River tributaries.

The ruling is a response to a U.S. Circuit Court decision in Oglala Sioux Tribe v. NRC, which forces the commission to correct its handling of tribal cultural resource concerns at the site under the National Environmental Protection Act.

The commission reasoned that the company’s radioactive materials and waste license may remain in place while proper historical preservation measures are being explored, because other permits from the state of South Dakota and the U.S. EPA have not been granted.

“Leaving the license in place for now poses no harm to the tribe because Powertech is not yet in a position to use its NRC license,” commissioners concluded. But just in case, they attached a caveat.

“We also order Powertech to notify the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and the parties 60 days in advance of conducting any activities at the site under its NRC license,” the commission said.

“This notification will allow the board to take any necessary action regarding Powertech’s license before such activities at the site would commence,” it said.