South Texas uranium plant enters production

BROOKS COUNTY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A new uranium factory in Brooks County is now up and running.

The Alta Mesa facility belongs to enCore Energy, one of very few multi-factory uranium producers in the world.

Executive Chairman William Sheriff said he is “very excited about to be producing yellow cake for United States nuclear energy needs, and it’s quite a big day for encore.”

At Alta Mesa, crews pump uranium from “wellfields.”

There, they create a substance called “yellow cake”, used to power nuclear reactors for electricity.

Sheriff said it is not only beneficial to bring work to South Texas, but to produce uranium domestically.

“At enCore, we’re really happy to be supplying a critical part of the us need for uranium and nuclear power," Sheriff said. "It’s really critical that the U.S. develops its own domestic supply uranium, and enCore is at the front of that and looks forward to continuing our leadership in that role.”

He said Texas is also easier to work with as an “agreement state”, with less federal regulations- allows factories to start production sooner. However, the companies are still required to follow strict safety guidelines.

Dr. Richard Costello, a UTRGV radiation safety officer talked about some of these guidelines.

“You have to demonstrate how they’re going to protect the environment," Costello said. "Is there any type of release to the environment? And then also they have to ensure or they have to specify how they’re going to protect the general public.”

He specifies there is some danger of working with uranium. He says the workers must keep it contained, and protect themselves with respirators.

“The primary mechanism for exposure of uranium is via what we call with the inhalation method and their specific limits that apply to that.”

He reassures that Alta Mesa is working with levels at a very low risk to the environment.

“There’s a significant safety factor built-in," Costello said. "In most cases, radiation workers with uranium mining are going to have a pretty small concentration”

Alta Mesa is expected to reach full operational capacity by 2026.