Moab Mill Tailings Project Reaches Milestone of 2 Million Tons Disposed
(Grand Junction, CO) ¨D Today the U.S. Department of Energy reached another milestone on the Moab, Utah, Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project: 2 million tons of tailings shipped by rail from the Moab site to the Crescent Junction, Utah, site for permanent disposal. Funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supported nearly 60 percent of the total shipments. "The Department of Energy has had tremendous success putting Americans to work cleaning up their communities through the Recovery Act," said DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management In¨¦s Triay. "We have been able to spur local economies and create jobs while accelerating our cleanup efforts and protecting the environment."
Two million tons would fill 60 stories of the 110-story Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). This milestone comes only 5 months after the Moab Project shipped the first of 16 million tons total.
"DOE could not be happier with the progress we are making in moving the mill tailings away from the Colorado River," said Federal Project Director Donald Metzler.
Extensions to the rail spurs at both the Moab and Crescent Junction sites have enabled adding two more railcars, which each carry four containers of mill tailings, to the two daily train shipments, 5 days a week. About 5,000 tons of tailings are transported with each 36-car trainload.
At the Crescent Junction site, the project has begun placing permanent cover materials over the tailings where the design height of the contaminated materials has been reached.
More information about the Moab Project is available online at www.gjem.energy.gov/moab.
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