The company has received hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive waste from at least four states and parts of Canada in the past 11 years. Out of the 18 previous company requests for amendments to the mill's license to expand waste processing, four out of 23 requested public hearings to discuss health and safety concerns have been held, and every amendment has been granted.

Clemens said he knew an operating permit for the Tony M Mine had been requested, but he had not been aware it had been granted. Chapter representatives in the Glen Canyon area who were involved in the effort to stop the waste from being trucked through Moab, Monticello and Blanding are closely following the permit to reopen the mine.

"Full details are yet to come, but generally, just as we're getting to cleaning up the mess from the first uranium boom doesn't seem like the time to start mining it again," Clemens said.

In the same canyon as the Tony M Mine is the Frank M Mine, owned by a different company, Toronto-based SXR Uranium One Inc.

Uranium One wants to also begin mining uranium at its site, which it bought about three months ago. The company is about 18 months behind the Tony M Mine in the permitting process, said Toby Wright, an environmental manager for Uranium One.

The Frank M Mine will have a mill on its site, and more employees than Tony M. It is in the process of purchasing the town of Ticaboo, Wright said.

"We want to build a safe and environmentally sound operation," Wright said.

The Frank M Mine also was productive in the 1970s but was abandoned when uranium prices dropped after nuclear plant accidents such as Three Mile Island.

In January 2003, uranium cost $7 a pound, but prices have increased since 2004, as policymakers have considered it an alternative energy source that could help combat global warming, Hochstein said. There are 440 nuclear reactors in the United States.

Uranium currently sells for $95 a pound. But it can be profitable to mine at $8 a pound, said Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab.

"We have some of the best yellowcake uranium in the world in Utah," he said. "We'd like to get in here and produce it and add to the economy."

---

Contributing: James Thalman

E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com