"Because most of the radioactive elements are gone, the remaining tailings contain small amounts of radioactivity." So obviously the original ore was hotter than the tailings. How much of this original ore still exists in nature, and how much of it comes into contact with (is eroded into) water that drains into the Colorado?

Having camped in Moab, they didn't mention clouds containing radioactive elements. And one wonders about all of the people who drank this water down-stream.

The natural leaching of elements into our water systems happens all the time. The problem with the tailings pile is that it is a concentrated mass of what used to be spread through the soil. Leaching small amounts of that dispersed material poses a much smaller health risk than that posed by a hundred acres pile of concentrated materials. If natural leaching is causing health concerns then it's time to find an alternative source.

I'm happy for the people in the Moab area, it is just beautiful there, as I visited there lsst year.
Now, my question is...where did all that radio active stuff get taken to?? Will someone answer that for me? Thank you!

As the article stated, the tailings are being taken to Crescent Junction... see related article for specifics

The myth, from a scientific standpoint, is that it is very difficult to get cancer from radiation--there are better (easier) ways to get cancer; radiation is a difficult way. So with "low-level" uranium, the risk is even lower. It's complete nonsense about a "dead zone along the Colorado River." There is no dead zone, and there is no more risk in boating, fishing, or swimming along the Colorado River than hiking in the mountains.

To move something that could be processed and then stored is a crime. The tailing should be sent to White Mesa Mill south of Blanding where it could be reprocessed and then stored in one spot. Now we have a new site that who knows in 40 or 50 years a town might spring up at Cressent Junction. I know that I don't want my childrens children to have to pay to move it again and again and again. Most sciencetist that studied the tailing wrote reports that they were contain where they were. What little that was leaching into the Colorado was so minute that 2 miles down stream you couldn't detect it. I am against this whole thing it will cost billion and billions before this is over and what will we have to show for it another site!!!!

This is a wonderful breakthrough for the thick minds of the people who decided to put this crap here in the first place! It doesn't matter if it is only a small amount. It can still hurt, and it does. Would you be drinking water daily that had trace amounts of uranium in it? No! Would you be camping in a campground with a nuclear waste site sitting beneath your feet? No! But, however, we are still wating for the day when the even thicker-skulled people who use uranium power to realize that nuclear energy is NOT the solution to America's power crisis! It hurts more than it helps. It requires more energy to aquire, extract, and dispose of that it is worth. Although I favor nuclear power slightly more than oil, coal, and gas, we just have to get used to the idea that fuel cells, wind power, and solar power is the future for America. When that happens, I'll be happy.