US approves first cleanup of abandoned, contaminated uranium mines

The environmental legacy impacts of Project Manhattan – a US-led World War II program to develop nuclear energy capabilities before foreign adversaries could – are still felt across the United States.

For decades, thousands of sites associated with abandoned uranium mine waste have remained contaminated — hundreds on or near Navajo and tribal lands — with no clear regulatory pathway for cleanup.

On September 30, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a license to Wyoming-based DISA Technologies, authorizing the company to clean up abandoned uranium mine sites across the West and recycle the uranium for domestic energy use — the first license of its kind ever granted by the NRC.

Uranium is a crucial source of reliable baseload power as nuclear energy, and the US requires an estimated 32 million pounds of uranium annually for its current nuclear reactors.

In 2024, the US purchased 50 million pounds of uranium, but only produced 677,000 pounds, according to the Energy Information Administration. Russia supplies a quarter of the enriched uranium needed by America’s fleet of 94 nuclear reactors, which generate about a fifth of US electricity.

Last month, when US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US should look to boost its strategic uranium reserve to buffer against dependence on Russian supplies and increase confidence in the long-term prospects of nuclear power generation, it signalled a call to Project Manhattan 2.0. That’s according to the CEO of the company controlling the largest mineable uranium deposit in the US.

The 2.0 path forward

DISA said its new license can unlock hundreds of millions of pounds of uranium-bearing material stranded in legacy waste piles— resources that could be recovered safely, under federal oversight, while eliminating environmental hazards that have persisted since the Cold War.

Its technology – the only validated technology for uranium treatment of these abandoned uranium mines  – is high-pressure slurry ablation (HPSA), DISA Technologies CEO Greyson Buckingham told MINING.COM in an interview.

“The US EPA estimates there’s 15,000 sites associated with abandoned uranium mine waste throughout the West,” Buckingham said. “This was really largely the responsibility of the US government, which was the Atomic Energy Commission, which is now the Department of Energy.

“And during the Cold War, we said we needed to get as much uranium as possible, so the US government was just incentivizing uranium mine production,” he said.

“There were a lot of smaller mom-and-pop shops that came to be. And there were really no regulations until the passage of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act and then other regulations with 1983 that the EPA promulgated. So none of these sites were even bonded.”

 Buckingham said a mining rush of sorts ensued on small mines.

“They’d take the economic ore to a uranium mill. The uneconomic material, they would leave on site. And then when the bust happened, all those companies went bankrupt, and there were no bonds there. So those waste piles of that uneconomic material just became abandoned and discarded,” he said.

“And it wasn’t until about two decades ago, studies through the NIH and other studies that we realized the longer we leave this material sit on site, the more it degrades.”

Buckingham said the uranium oxidizes leach into the water, dust particles blow into population centers, and noted there are 523 Superfund sites that are abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation.

“For our abandoned uranium mine treatment, we’re going to be building 50 and 110 per hour units. On average, the sites that we’re looking at are around 30,000 tons of material.”

“We’ve been working with the Navajo Nation for over five years now. We have a contract in place with the to remediate the first site on the Navajo Nation. We did a treatability study on the Navajo Nation on three different sites in 2022 that was sponsored by the US EPA.”

Buckingham said billions of dollars were sitting in a fund for over 10 years to clean up these sites and no cleanups have happened because, until now, the only options were to bury everything or to haul it all off site.

“Navajo don’t want the material buried on site because they want these contaminants off their land. And to haul it off site is prohibitively expensive,” he said.

Buckingham said the plan is to recycle the uranium and put it to productive use.

Wyoming Senator support

The DISA cleanup initiative and NRC approval is supported by Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.

“An expedited approval process demonstrates what’s possible when innovative companies are empowered by federal regulators to establish clear, first-of-its-kind frameworks that prioritize both safety and efficiency, and I am so excited that through DISA, Wyoming is leading the way,” Senator Lummis said in an emailed statement to MINING.COM.

“Abandoned mines continue to threaten the health of our families and land in western states and on tribal land,” Lummis said.

“This license is a critical step in allowing DISA to move forward with its critical remediation and not only address these health and safety concerns but recover valuable materials in the process.”

The Navajo perspective

Mining companies blasted nearly 4 million tons of uranium out of Navajo land between 1944 and 1986, and the legacy impacts remain. It was a period that saw Navajo people working in the mines under conditions where the health risks of radiation were not fully understood.

Navajo Country, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, is surrounded by hundreds of abandoned uranium mines that powered America’s nuclear arms race with the USSR and spewed toxic waste into the land.

The Navajo Nation has put a lot of effort into finding a solution, over four decades and through two congressional hearings, Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director at the Navajo Nation and the Environmental Protection Agency, told MINING.COM in an interview.

Etsitty, who was a witness in the 2007 congressional hearing, confirmed the Navajo’s support of the initiative. He has worked for years with the NRC on licensing of emerging technologies for remediation of mine waste.

Etsitty hopes abandoned uranium sites can be reclassified as brownfields; areas where contamination can be mitigated and land restored.

“We’ve spent the last 40 years looking for technology for the abandoned sites on Navajo lands, and we haven’t turned a shovel of dirt,” Etsitty said.

Etsitty said the aim is to separate heavy metals from host rocks into two waste streams – and manage those streams effectively.

A recent bench-level report confirmed new technology shows promise, but it must now be tested and regulated at commercial scale.

“We have been in the mode for a while to integrate this technology. We are looking forward to the results – we are excited to see what can be done. Some of this we’re hoping to recycle. With this technology we’re hoping to be able to do that,” he said.

Etsitty said the focus now is to start testing DISA’s technology on larger volumes – tonnes of waste instead of pounds.

The Navajo Nation is also calling for a dedicated low-level waste repository near their communities, in a location that makes transport economically feasible.

“We need a low-level waste repository far enough away,  but not 500 miles away…and a transport highway risk analysis,” Etsitty said.

“Our communities want this waste material removed – taken away – we want this communicated to Secretary [of the Interior] Doug Burgum and we’re hoping the federal government can help.”