42 U.S.C. § 7901 : US Code - Section 7901: Congressional findings and purposes

Search 42 U.S.C. § 7901 : US Code - Section 7901: Congressional findings and purposes

(a) The Congress finds that uranium mill tailings located at
active and inactive mill operations may pose a potential and
significant radiation health hazard to the public, and that the
protection of the public health, safety, and welfare and the
regulation of interstate commerce require that every reasonable
effort be made to provide for the stabilization, disposal, and
control in a safe and environmentally sound manner of such tailings
in order to prevent or minimize radon diffusion into the
environment and to prevent or minimize other environmental hazards
from such tailings.
(b) The purposes of this chapter are to provide -
(1) in cooperation with the interested States, Indian tribes,
and the persons who own or control inactive mill tailings sites,
a program of assessment and remedial action at such sites,
including, where appropriate, the reprocessing of tailings to
extract residual uranium and other mineral values where
practicable, in order to stabilize and control such tailings in a
safe and environmentally sound manner and to minimize or
eliminate radiation health hazards to the public, and
(2) a program to regulate mill tailings during uranium or
thorium ore processing at active mill operations and after
termination of such operations in order to stabilize and control
such tailings in a safe and environmentally sound manner and to
minimize or eliminate radiation health hazards to the public.