My Sweet Lord: We Can't Put An Oil Pipeline Across Nebraska, But We Can Truck Yellow Cake Uranium Across Nebraska

My Sweet Lord, George Harrison

The Keystone XL was killed by President Obama because of concern about a pipeline spill over the Olgallala Aquifer, but we can use the president's highways to ship uranium waste across the same aquifer by truck. No protests. No outrage. No Sierra Club. My sweet lord.

WyomingTrib is reporting:

Ur-Energy's Lost Creek uranium facility made its first shipment this week, sending 35,000 pounds of yellowcake uranium to an Illinois conversion plant.

The shipment came seven years after the in-situ uranium recovery site north of Rawlins was first proposed.

The mine soon expects to be shipping two to four truckloads a month, said Wayne Heili, president of Casper-based Ur-Energy, the company that owns and operates the sites. Each truckload weighs 35,000 pounds.

"There was a certain amount of enthusiasm about seeing that first shipment leave the site," Heili said. "It is not every day you see a company succeed in its long-term goals."

Uranium prices have slumped in recent years. The $130 per pound prices of 2007 are gone, replaced by today's average of $36 per pound on the spot market. Long-term contracts for yellowcake are slightly better, averaging $50 per pound.

A big "thank you" for Don to point out this bit of irony. The yellow cake will go barreling down I-80 across Nebraska -- the entire state --  all 500 miles of it.