Wyoming is set to sign a deal Sept. 25 to take control of oversight of its own uranium production and begin regulatory authority in October.
The move to take over nuclear regulatory control from the federal government has been completed “ahead of schedule and ahead of budget,” said Kyle Wendtland, land quality division administrator for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.
Wyoming began the four-year process of becoming an agreement state in 2015, and the agency originally aimed to take control of nuclear permitting by 2019.
The DEQ announced the deal at a Monday meeting in Laramie of the Legislature’s Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, which is expected to introduce legislation in the 2019 session to clarify the state’s responsibilities under the nuclear regulatory agreement.
As part of the agreement, the NRC will transfer 14 specific licenses for radioactive material to Wyoming’s jurisdiction.
Wyoming has the largest uranium reserves in the U.S. and open-pit mining once employed about 3,000 workers in Fremont County before the market collapsed in the early 1980s.
Daniel Bendtsen Laramie Boomerang – Star Tribune – August 30, 2018.
Want More Investigative Content?
