According to the article, the residue of uranium mining has blighted Colorado from Denver to the far western reaches of the state for more than half a century. Now, two Montrose businessmen say they have a revolutionary and environmentally friendly solution to the problem of that radioactive waste.
Don Coram and Gerald Harrington have applied for a patent, have an initial contract, and are preparing a permit application for a pilot project they say will demonstrate how they can use synthetic acid and alkaline to pull virtually all traces of radioactive material from waste rock and tailings. They propose to do that where it sits, and to leave no contamination behind.
Down the road, they say, the process could also be used on mill tailings, such as the crushed residue that was left at the Shattuck Superfund site in Denver and the huge uranium-laced pile that looms over Moab.
"We haven't reinvented the wheel," Coram told the Denver Post. "We've just redesigned what has been done in the past." Coram has been working in the uranium and vanadium mining industry for three decades.
Coram and Harrington have been unveiling their unusual odorless, nonburning acid and their portable extraction method to mining-company and government officials recently.
According to the article, those who have seen the laboratory results say that, scientifically, the method works. They are waiting on proof that it can be done economically on a large scale and that it won't create any further contamination.
"I remain a little skeptical, but if it works, it would be revolutionary," Mike Tucker, a project manager for the Department of Energy, told the Post. "If it is economical, if that is indeed true, it would be very beneficial to society."
An estimated 800 to 1,000 piles of uranium-mine waste dot western Colorado, left where it was pulled from the ground before the government required reclamation of the troublesome waste. Much of that waste is rock that was deemed too low in uranium and vanadium content to justify hauling it to a mill.
