Saturday, April 19, 2008

Ambrosia Lake Uranium Mining Area


The Ambrosia Lake Uranium Mine and Milling facility is located on or adjacent to Navajo Land. The large flat grey mound you see in the distance is the uranium mill tailings pile.


The flat area you see beyond the sign is one of the uranium mining tailings evaporation ponds.

The large flat grey mound in the top photograph is a demolished uranium mill and radioactive tailings covered with crushed rock. In 1992, the Ambrosia Lake Uranium mill was buried by the Department of Energy. The mill was built in 1957 during the first "Uranium Boom" and was operated by the Phillips Petroleum Company, later it was bought by the United Nuclear Company which operated it until the early 1980's. This site is 196 acres and is one of 24 uranium mill tailings sites in the US that are being remediated as part of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project (UMTRA).

Link to Ambrosia Lake Uranium Tailings Pile on Center For Land Use Interpretation database:
http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/NM3000/

Link to article, "As Uranium Mining Firms Eye New Mexico, Navajos are Wary"
http://nmviewpoint.typepad.com/new_mexico_viewpoint/2008/03/at-least-five-c.html

Link to SWIC's Uranium Impact Assessment Program about the newly proposed "solution mining" that threatens the drinking water of 10,000-15,000 Navajo (Diné) people:
http://www.sric.org/uranium/

No comments: