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the proposed legislation. In response to the Chairman's May 5, 1978, request, this report addresses

--the need for a Federal program to clean up the 22
inactive uranium mill tailings sites (See ch. 2.);

--the adequacy of the proposed legislation that would
authorize such a program (See ch. 3.);

--the progress and problems of an existing, but much
smaller, cleanup program at Grand Junction, Colorado
(See ch. 4.); and

--several other questions asked by the Subcommittee
Chairman.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

We obtained the information contained in this report by reviewing key documents, studies, reports, correspondence, and other records, and by interviewing officials at

--DOE headquarters, Washington, D.C. and Germantown,

Maryland;

--Colorado Department of Health offices in Denver, and
Grand Junction, Colorado;

--DOE operations office, Grand Junction, Colorado;

--Environmental Protection Agency headquarters, Washington, D.C.; and

--NRC offices, Rethesda, Maryland.

Much of our work was based on our previous involvement in evaluating the uranium mill tailings and radioactive waste disposal problems and programs.

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We furnished copies of a draft of this report to DOE and NRC. Because of the extremely short timeframe to do this assignment, we did not seek their formal comments on the report; nevertheless, both agencies informally told us that they generally agreed with this report.

CHAPTER 2

THE NEED FOR A FEDERAL URANIUM MILL

TAILINGS CLEANUP PROGRAM

During the past 5 years there has been considerable congressional and public interest in the uranium mill tailings issue. GAO has also been interested in this area and has issued three reports since May 1975 that have dealt with the subject of cleaning up radioactive uranium mill tailings 1/, and a number of other reports discussing various radioactive waste disposal problems.

A BACKGROUND ON URANIUM MILL
TAILINGS CLEANUP PROGRAMS

The fiscal year 1973 authorization act for the former Atomic Energy Commission (P.L. 92-314) created the first Federal mill tailings cleanup program. The act authorized the Commission to enter into a cooperative agreement with Colorado to limit the exposure of individuals to radiation from uranium mill tailings which had been used in constructing houses and other buildings in Grand Junction, Colorado. As of May 31, 1978, 315 of about 700 locations have been cleaned up, at a cost of about $6.5 million. Chapter 4 discusses the Grand Junction cleanup program in more detail.

In 1974 legislation (H.R. 11387, S. 2566) was proposed in the Congress that would have primarily allowed the Federal Government to enter into a cooperative agreement with Utah to clean up the so-called Vitro tailings site in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, at hearings before the former Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, officials from DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that many other sites had similar problems, and that all of the sites should be assessed and, if necessary, cleaned up. The proposed legislation was not enacted.

In January 1978, almost 4 years after the Joint Committee hearings, DOE submitted engineering assessment reports on 22 inactive mill tailings sites to the Congress. According to DOE,

1/"Comments on Proposed Legislation to Amend Public Law 92-314 and for Other Purposes" (EMD-77-52, July 19, 1977), "Cleaning Up the Remains of Nuclear Facilities--A Multibillion Dollar Problem" (EMD-77-46, June 16, 1977), and "Controlling the Radiation Hazard from Uranium Mill Tailings" (RED-75-365, May 21, 1975).

the general finding of these 22 reports--prepared for DOE by a contractor--was that the tailings are not adequately stabilized for long-term storage at any of the sites. Further, according to DOE, wind and water erosion has spread tailings beyond property boundaries, increasing the risk of lung cancer for persons living within one-half mile of a tailings pile by about 100 percent. DOE also indicated that most of the sites are in demand for alternative uses.

On April 27, 1978, DOE submitted proposed legislation to the Congress entitled the "Residual Radioactive Materials Act of 1978." The proposed legislation, if enacted, will provide for a cooperative Federal/State cleanup program with the Federal Government paying up to 75 percent of the cost and the States contributing the rest. Where the sites are located on Indian lands, the Federal Government will pay 100 percent of the cost.

SHOULD THE CONGRESS ALLOW DOE-TO
BEGIN A URANIUM MILL TAILINGS
CLEANUP PROGRAM?

There are a number of factors that need to be considered before the Congress decides on whether to allow DOE to enter into cooperative agreements with a number of States to clean up radioactive tailings at inactive uranium mill sites. In our view the following seven factors are important:

--To what extent do the mill tailings constitute a significant hazard to the public's health and safety?

--Is the mill tailings cleanup program necessary for nuclear power to become a substantial source of energy for the future?

--Can productive uses be made of the generally unproductive mill tailings sites?

--To what extent is the Federal Government responsible
for creating the mill tailings situation?

--How much will the proposed cleanup program cost?
--Are adequate mill tailings cleanup technologies pres-
ently available?

--What is the relationship of the mill tailings clean

up program to other nuclear facilities that may even-
tually need to be cleaned up?

The effect of the mill tailings on the public's health and safety

In our view, the most important factor to be considered is the effect of radiation emitted from the mill tailings on the public's health and safety. About 85 percent of the total radioactivity originally in uranium ore remains in the tailings after removal of the uranium because radium and thorium--the principal contributors to radioactive emissions--were not normally removed from the uranium ore during milling.

Of the two, radium is the most significant radioactive waste product in the tailings. It has a very long radioactive life, taking thousands of years before it loses its radioactivity. This loss--called radioactive decay--produces two distinct types of hazards. The first type is highly penetrating gamma radiation. Exposure to sufficient amounts of gamma radiation can cause cancer, such as leukemia. The second hazard--radon gas--produces other radioactive products which attach to particles in the air and are deposited in the lungs when inhaled. Exposure to large concentrations of these radon products can increase the risk of lung cancer.

The possible health effects of the radiation at the 22 mill tailings sites have been postulated. The following table shows the number of cancer cases that could theoretically be avoided during the next 25, 50, and 100 years assuming the most effective remedial action alternatives are selected. The cost of the remedial action is also shown. These estimates were taken by us from the studies of all 22 sites done for DOE by a contractor.

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It is important to note that DOE officials told us that in
their opinion, these estimates could vary by a factor of
about 3 or 4, meaning that 3 or 4 times fewer, or more,
cer cases could be avoided.

Nuclear power as a substantial future energy source

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As of March 1978, 69 nuclear powerplants were in operation in the United States. Another 140 were either being built or on order. Nuclear power currently provides about 10 percent of the Nation's electricity. Whether it will continue to grow to become a substantial energy source for the future is dependent on the resolution of several serious problems. Foremost among these problems is the United States' lack of progress in developing and operating waste disposal systems to adeguately manage radioactive wastes.

Uranium mill tailings are only one of the types of radioactive wastes that have to be managed. However, failure to clean them up could continue to foster the impression that the radioactive waste problem is unsolvable and that the nuclear power option is, therefore, unacceptable. Cleaning up mill tailings, while not the answer to the whole problem, is a step in the right direction for making nuclear power a more acceptable energy source.

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