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Deseret News | Tailings spill shuts down EnergySolutions project until Tuesday
A truck carrying uranium mill tailings from a Moab cleanup project headed by EnergySolutions tipped over and spilled some of the radioactive dirt last Wednesday.
The multimillion-dollar cleanup project directed at properly disposing of the 16 million tons of uranium tailings was suspended until Tuesday for a safety evaluation, EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said.
"Safety is always our first priority," Walker said. "It's a self-imposed shutdown."
EnergySolutions, which was awarded the project nearly 18 months ago to haul the tailings 30 miles north of Moab, had been carting dirt up a haul road at the site Wednesday evening when the driver came too close to the shoulder and the truck tipped over, Walker said.
Work to remove uranium waste in Utah picking up - Salt Lake Tribune
The job of moving 16 million tons of radioactive waste from the shores of the Colorado River in southern Utah is picking up steam.
The U.S. Department of Energy says more than 330,000 tons of uranium tailings have been hauled away from a huge pile near Moab and deposited in disposal pits 30 miles to the north.
Crews began running two trainloads a day in August, doubling the amount of waste shipped to Crescent Junction each day.
Project manager Donald Metzler says the pace will pick up even more next month with longer trains and more container cars.
The work is part of a $1 billion project to clear away a 130-acre heap of waste left behind after the closure of a uranium mill in 1984. The project could be completed by 2022 or earlier if additional funds are secured.
Update: EnergySolutions Moab Project Receives American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funding of Nearly $23 Million
EnergySolutions, Inc. (NYSE: ES) announced today that $22.9 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding has been allocated to the Moab UMTRA project. The total amount of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for the Moab project is $108 million. The funding is being used to accelerate removal of uranium mill tailings away from the banks of the Colorado River. Thus far 160 jobs have been created this year as a result of Recovery Act funding.
"We are thrilled that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has allocated sufficient funding to the Moab project to accelerate the cleanup of the site. This is great news for the community and for all who use the Colorado River and Lake Powell," said Steve Creamer, CEO and Chairman of EnergySolutions.
The Recovery Act funding is being used to excavate, transport and dispose of additional mill tailings from the Moab site to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission-approved disposal cell at Crescent Junction. This additional work began in June and will continue through September 2011. Additionally, this additional funding supports increasing the size of the disposal cell as well as crushing, transporting, and placing final rock cover on the disposal cell. This portion of the work began in August and continues through September 2011.
Sixteen million tons of uranium mill tailings will eventually be relocated 30 miles north of Moab to a location designated by the DOE.
ksl.com - Feds speeding up removal of Moab uranium tailings
Work to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste away from the tourist town of Moab is about to go a little faster.
The U.S. Department of Energy says it plans to double the amount of uranium tailings removed each day from the shores of the Colorado River.
Right now, rail cars take about 2,800 tons of tailings a day to a dump site 30 miles away, where they're placed in specially designed cells. The DOE says a second train will be added in mid-August.
Deseret News | Stimulus is speeding tailings removal
A new report by the Department of Energy on the Moab tailings project says an average of 12,000 tons of contaminated dirt are being shipped to a nearby disposal site each week and by late June, more than 100,000 tons have been removed.
Federal stimulus money and an extra allocation from the Omnibus Appropriation Act infused an additional $118 million to the project to accelerate the timeline of the cleanup.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the funding boost is critical, given the severity of contamination at the former Atlas mine northwest of Moab.
"The danger posed by this unstable site is clear," he said. "It is a risk not only to Moab but to millions of downstream water users. It's important that this threat is removed as quickly as possible."
Video: Uranium Tailings May Threaten Moab River - KSTU
MOAB, Utah - Although millions of tons of Uranium tailings have been removed, some citizens of Moab are concerned that the remaining tailings may contaminate the nearby Colorado river. The river runs through town and a potential contaminatino could jeapordize drinking water. Energy Solutions were contracted to remove the mounds of tailings in 2007. "Were were moving it is to an environmentally stable location, 30 miles north of the town of Moab to a stable environment where that material can sit for thousands of years," says Energy Solutions' Project Manager, Larry Brede.
Deseret News | Director of Moab disposal is tireless stickler for details
Now, like a conductor, he directs the efforts of more than 150 people at the Moab tailings project and Crescent Junction Disposal Site, and 25 more at the Department of Energy's office in Grand Junction, Colo., where he makes his home.
The goal is overwhelmingly simple on its face — the removal of 16 million tons of mining waste — but deceptively complex because of the risk to workers and the community due to the waste's radioactive nature.
Deseret News | Crescent Junction site quietly taking the 'Pile'
Motorists whipping past along I-70 see only the turnoff for Moab at the sign that says Crescent Junction. But a little to the north, a train sits on the railroad tracks, and oversize trucks unload rail cars.
From there containers of the radioactive waste that are the legacy of a bankrupt uranium mine are unloaded one after the other, filling up a disposal cell that will trap the tailings for years to come.
Much was celebrated Monday to the south on the outskirts of Moab at the former Atlas mine site, where full-time operations to remove the waste have been under way since mid-April.
Deseret News | It's a 'go' for tailings cleanup
More than half a century ago, an unemployed geologist stumbled across the country's largest deposit of high-grade uranium in southeastern Utah.
The result of that discovery fueled a thriving industry for Moab at the time, but left a legacy of 16 million tons of uranium tailings that currently threaten the Colorado River.
Today is a celebratory landmark in the cleanup process at the former Atlas mill site, where 22 rail cars hauling 88 containers of the waste will head 30 miles north to Crescent Junction to a disposal site.
The site is 1700 feet longs, 1800 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. Trucks carrying the material dump it into the disposal site, where a front end loader make several passes to pack the bright red dirt, which is full of tailings.
Uranium pile outside Moab ready to be moved - Salt Lake Tribune
Monday is moving day for the Atlas Corp. tailings pile outside of Moab.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and representatives of four congressional offices assembled in Moab for a ribbon-cutting for the uranium waste removal project.
Huntsman called it a great day. "The people of Moab and Grand County made it their priority." They dogged every federal official who came to town, the governor said. "For them, it was a matter of pride, for them, it was a matter of health and the environment."
Moving the 16 million tons of uranium processing waste is expected to cost around $1 billion and to take at least 10 years. The pile is being hauled by rail 42 miles north to a specially constructed landfill north of Interstate 80 at Crescent Junction.
Deseret News | Removal of uranium tailings begins near Moab
The first trainload of radioactive uranium tailings has been taken from a dump site near Moab and moved to a disposal cell 30 miles away.
Cleanup of the 16 million-ton tailings pile was accelerated with a $108 million infusion from the Obama administration's economic-stimulus package last month.
The tailings, from the now-defunct Atlas uranium mill, have posed a threat of leaching radioactive waste into the Colorado River, prompting urgent requests for removal by Utah's congressional delegation.
An announcement Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Energy said the first trainload of tailings departed from the 439-acre site Monday for Crescent Junction. The tailings cover about 139 acres.
ksl.com - Uranium on its way out of Moab
After decades of controversy, a huge pile of radioactive waste near Moab is finally on the move. A train load of waste is expected to pull out of Moab Monday evening -- the first of thousands of trains over the next decade or two.
The pile of red dirt blends into the red rock scenery so well, it's hard to make out how big it is, but "big" is the word. There are 130 acres of uranium mill tailings, 16 million tons of radioactive waste.
Many Moab residents will be glad to get rid of it. "This is one of the happiest days in our town's history, actually," said Mayor David Sakrison.
The waste is being loaded into sealed containers and hauled by truck to a nearby railroad. Trains will haul the waste 30 miles north, nearly a train a day for at least 10 years. Near Crescent Junction on Interstate 70, the radioactive red dirt will be placed in a covered disposal cell.
Deseret News | Stimulus to help remove Moab tailings
The Obama administration decided Tuesday to use a big chunk of the economic stimulus package to accelerate removal of the Atlas uranium mill tailings near Moab, which have threatened to leach radioactive waste into the Colorado River.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that of the $6 billion that the stimulus package gave the Energy Department to accelerate environmental cleanup work, he is allocating $108 million to the Moab project.
That had Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, almost shouting for joy. He has fought the Energy Department under previous leadership for years to accelerate the project and was told as late as a month ago that it might not be completed for another 20 years because of lack of funds. Such lack of funds is apparently no longer a problem for now.
Uranium project near Moab ahead of schedule - Salt Lake Tribune
The first rail cars hauling uranium tailings away from a huge pile near Moab could move sometime in April.
Work is about a month ahead of schedule to begin rail shipments, said Don Metzler, the project's director for the federal Department of Energy. Managers are hoping to ship the first load April 20, but Metzler says that date is only a target at this point and not firm.
"It's getting more intense, and we're getting more excited," Metzler said Friday.
The 16 million tons of radioactive sludge are being taken to Crescent Junction as part of a $1 billion project to deal with the waste.
The tailings are leftovers from a former uranium mill about three miles northwest of Moab.
The 130-acre site along U.S. 191 leaches contaminants into the river, which provides water for some 25 million people downstream.
ksl.com - Moab readies to rid itself of uranium-infused dirt
Preparations are getting under way in earnest for one of the biggest and most expensive dirt-hauling projects ever.
It's radioactive dirt, and Moab residents have been arguing about what to do with it for a quarter of a century.
For more than two decades, the government has been trying to clean the radioactive dirt-piles left behind when the uranium industry went into a deep slump.
Lots of radioactive dirt has been moved to safer places, but the biggest pile of all is right here in Utah.
It's a pile of red dirt so big, if they shipped it to the EnergySolutions Arena, it would fill it to the ceiling 23 times. But the EnergySolutions company has other plans.
Moab meeting set on Atlas tailings - Salt Lake Tribune
Plans to clean up the Atlas tailings pile outside Moab are the subject of a meeting planned Thursday by the U.S. Energy Department.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Moab's Grand Center, 182 N. 500 West.
The public will be updated about what is being done to begin hauling the 16 million tons of tailings and other uranium-ore-processing waste from the banks of the Colorado north of Moab to a newly constructed disposal site 32 miles north at Crescent Junction.
- Judy Fahys
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The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog: Moab Uranium Riding the Rails
Yesterday, the Department of Energy (DOE) reaffirmed its prior decision to relocate the uranium mill tailings predominantly by rail from Moab, Utah. The tailings will be trained from the banks of the Colorado River 30 miles north to Crescent Junction, Utah. DOE may still consider using truck transport under certain circumstances, but it won't be the primary mode of transportation for the contaminated pile.
DOE confirms it will move contaminated Moab tailings by rail, not truck - Salt Lake Tribune
About 16 million tons of mill tailings abutting the Colorado River near Moab will be moved by rail to a permanent disposal site, the Department of Energy said Tuesday, reaffirming a decision not to ship the contaminated uranium mill tailings by truck along rural roads.
"After evaluating the alternatives for safely transporting the mill tailings from Moab and considering input received from citizens in the Moab community and surrounding areas, [the Department of Energy] has decided to ship the tailings using the existing Union Pacific Railroad track," Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management James A. Rispoli said in a news release. "We believe our decision will be most protective of the community over the long term."
Tailings tab could top $1 billion - Salt Lake Tribune
The cost of hauling away the Moab tailings by 2019 could exceed $1 billion, according to the latest estimate by the U.S. Energy Department, the agency managing the cleanup.
Deseret News | Cleaning up Moab tailings could cost up to $1 billion
WASHINGTON — The Energy Department estimates it could cost up to $1 billion to clean up the uranium mill tailings in Moab by 2019, based on an anticipated report issued to Congress late Tuesday.
The 2019 deadline gets the project done faster than the 2028 deadline the department submitted to Congress last year but is still way beyond the 2012 deadline initially proposed when the department took over the project.
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