Thursday, October 30, 2008

Ambrosia Lake Uranium Tailings Pile



Inside this geometric mound, with a skin of coarsely crushed rock, is a demolished uranium mill and its radioactive tailings. The mill was buried in 1992 by the Department of Energy, one of 24 uranium mill tailings sites in the US that are being remediated as part of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project (UMTRA). The site covers approximately 196 acres of this remote valley north of Grants, where several uranium mining sites exist, including one still-functioning uranium plant. The mill at this site was built in 1957, operated by the Phillips Petroleum Company. It was later bought by the United Nuclear Company, which operated at the site until the early 1980s. As at some other UMTRA sites, the DOE has installed carved granite warning monuments (resembling tombstones) around the unfenced mound.

http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/NM3000/

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