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Title 42, The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-102

§7901 Congressional Findings and Purposes

Title 42 › CHAPTER 88 — URANIUM MILL TAILINGS RADIATION CONTROL › § 7901

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Uranium mill tailings can give off radiation and radon that can harm people's health. The law requires these wastes to be made safe and kept under control to protect the public and the environment. It creates two programs: one, done with States, Indian tribes, and site owners, to assess and clean up inactive tailings sites (and, when useful, reprocess tailings to recover leftover uranium and other minerals); and two, to regulate tailings at active mills and after they close so they remain safe.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §7901

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(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.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (b), was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 95–604, Nov. 8, 1978, 92 Stat. 3021, known as the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note below and Tables.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

of 1988 Amendment Pub. L. 100–616, § 1, Nov. 5, 1988, 102 Stat. 3192, provided: “That this Act [amending section 7916 and 7922 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action

Amendments

Act of 1988’.”

Short Title

Pub. L. 95–604, § 1, Nov. 8, 1978, 92 Stat. 3021, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter and section 2022, 2113, and 2114 of this title, amending section 2014, 2021, 2111, and 2201 of this title, and enacting provisions set out as notes under section 2014, 2021, and 2113 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 7901

Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102