Post corrected, 12/30; 7:29 a.m.

The Paradox Valley in western Colorado may soon have a new plant to process ore from hundreds of new and reopened uranium mines if a Canadian energy company’s vision of the future comes to pass.

That future seems a little closer with an announcement last Friday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment that Energy Fuels Inc. had completed its application to build a uranium mill near the town of Nucla, about 220 miles southwest of Denver.

If approved, the Piñon Ridge plant would be the first uranium mill built in the United States in 25 years. About 85 percent of the uranium used for fuel in the country’s nuclear plants, which supply roughly 20 percent of the nation’s energy, is imported, according to the Energy Department.

The state of Colorado says reviewing the application for the plant — which would process up to 1,000 tons of uranium ore a day –- will take 12 to 14 months.

This remote part of Colorado was once an important supplier of uranium for the United States nuclear arsenal during the Cold War. Since the collapse of the uranium market in the late ‘70s, the valley struggled economically.

The health impacts of that first uranium boom continue to linger, say mill opponents, pointing to a study performed in the early 1960s, which showed the death rate from lung cancer of former uranium miners was five times that of the general population.

A critical environmental concern for the proposed mill is the protection of groundwater. Critics say that the rock formations that tailing ponds are to be built upon are highly porous and faulted, making the risk of groundwater contamination high. Water use is also a main concern in this arid landscape; at full capacity, the mill is expected to consume about 300 gallons of water every minute.

In spite of the dissent, mining and milling of uranium in the state has been backed cautiously by Senator Mark Udall and the office of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, who sees nuclear energy as a vital piece of the state’s so-called “ New Energy Economy.”

“We’re confident nuclear power can and will play a greater role in solving this country’s energy and climate challenges,” said Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Governor Ritter, in an e-mail message.

Among the biggest challenges, Mr. Dreyer noted, is “ensuring that uranium mining and milling is done in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the public’s health or the environment.”

Southwestern Colorado’s economic transformation since the bust of the 1970s must also be considered, said Hilary White, director of the Sheep Mountain Alliance, an environmental group based in Telluride, Colo. A revitalized uranium industry could undercut a burgeoning organic farming movement along the Dolores River, she said, and stifle the millions of dollars brought to the region through tourism, its current economic engine.

“The stigma that uranium brings is huge,” Ms. White said. “We’d basically come to be seen as the uranium capital of the U.S. instead of one of its scenic wonders.”

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An earlier version of this post incorrectly attributed a quote to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. The quote came from a spokesman for the governor’s office, Evan Dreyer.