From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):
The shipment of the first million tons was completed Wednesday…
“We’ve still got a long ways to go,” project Director Don Metzler said. The cleanup originally was scheduled to continue through 2028, but with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the completion time moved closer to 2025. By continuing to work on efficiencies, “We can even get a few years off that,” Metzler said. The $1 billion project could come in under budget, too, Metzler said…
Moving the mill-tailings pile, a remnant of the uranium production for the Cold War, from Moab began in June. The cleanup operation runs 24 hours a day from the 130-acre pile near Moab to Crescent Junction, about 30 miles away. The project fills two trains of as many as 26 cars a day Monday through Friday. Moving the pile was a high priority for downstream states Arizona, California and Nevada, which feared damage to the water quality from the mill-tailings pile. Utah officials also wanted the pile moved so it wouldn’t detract from Moab’s reputation as a mecca for mountain biking, hiking and other outdoor pursuits in the nearby Arches and Canyonlands national parks.
Wow, that is a lot of machining waste. What did they do, grind a chunk the size of a train car down to the size of a pencil? I guess this just puts into perspective how much effort we’ve put on nuclear weapons over the decades, yikes!