In mid-September, five Department of Energy (DOE) employees and a journalist toured the Cactus Rat Group area of the Thompson-Yellow Cat Mining District in Grand County, Utah, north of Arches National Park. Here, the landscape is dotted with abandoned uranium mines—approximately 100 in this nearly 6-acre site. More than 3,400 defense-related uranium mines are scattered across the Four Corners region, abandoned prior to state and federal mining and reclamation laws, standards, and regulations established during the 1970s.