• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A federal panel on Wednesday put a temporary hold on the operating license for a proposed uranium mine near Edgemont to ensure historic and cultural sites in the Black Hills aren't damaged.
• The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued the stay on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license granted in April to Powertech Uranium Corp. The decision was in response to motions filed by the Oglala Sioux Tribe and other groups.
• "This temporary stay is intended to prevent any immediate and irreparable harm to any cultural or historic resources caused by earthwork or ground disturbance within the Dewey-Burdock sites," the order states.
• The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, comprised of three administrative judges, said it will decide whether to lift or continue the stay after hearing oral arguments. That hearing has not been scheduled.
• The board, which is in the NRC, hears complaints regarding nuclear safety issues.
• Powertech's project manager, Mark Hollenbeck, said the stay is not a surprise and doesn't affect the operation because the company still needs other agency approval before starting construction.
• "The opposition's plan has always been death by delay. They haven't won anything on science or the merits yet," he said. "We expect that and we're ready for it."
• One of the tribe's attorneys, Jeffrey Parsons of the Western Mining Action Project, said a credible scientific study must be done to make sure the mining process doesn't destroy historic and prehistoric sites.
• "We're talking about everything from camps to gravesites out there," he said from his office in Lyons, Colorado. The stay "demonstrates the seriousness of these issues."
• Powertech still needs approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The state Board of Minerals and Environment and state Water Management Board suspended hearings late last year until the federal agencies make decisions.
• The company plans to use a method known as in-situ recovery, which would pump groundwater fortified with oxygen and carbon dioxide into the underground ore deposits to dissolve the uranium. The water would be pumped back to the surface, where the uranium would be extracted and sold to nuclear power plants.
• The mine, which would sit within a 17-square-mile site, is projected to recover 1

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