From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):
Nearly half of what had been a 16 million-ton pile of uranium mill tailings sitting on the north side of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, is gone, having been hauled some 30 miles to the north, well away from the river. About 7.2 million tons of tailings that date to Cold War efforts to refine uranium were taken to Crescent Junction to be buried in a disposal cell below the Book Cliffs (spelled with two words in Utah).
“It’s amazing to think about where we were 10 years ago,” when planning for the cleanup got underway, said Don Metzler, federal project director for the cleanup.
“I drove by there the other day and, boy, it’s really noticeable,” Moab Mayor Dave Sakrison said of the shrinking mill-tailings pile.
“The townspeople are really happy about seeing that pile go away.”
Moab residents have long wanted the pile removed, and their hopes were echoed by downstream states that depend on the Colorado for water.
The tailings are shipped by rail from the site to Crescent Junction, where they’re removed for burial in the cell. Estimates about the magnitude of such projects frequently run low, but so far the original estimate of 16 million tons has proven pretty accurate, Metzler said.
“In the end, it might be a little larger,” but the disposal cell should be easily able to contain the tailings, Metzler said.
So far, progress on the pile has been on budget and on time, Metzler said, noting that there were no lost-time accidents or injuries on the project in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
The Department of Energy is requesting $35.8 million for the project in 2015 and the estimated total cost is in a range of $928 million to $936 million.
The project employs 136 people, 30 of them Mesa County residents.
Cleanup is to be complete by 2025.
Officials in Moab and Grand County are now looking ahead to what will come next on the 480-acre site. About 130 acres were covered by the pile.
Ideas include additional parking for Arches National Park, a consolidated federal office structure, a park and bike trails, or an outdoor amphitheater, Sakrison said.
Whatever goes on the site, said Sakrison, “It’s not going to be industrial.”
More nuclear coverage here.