By Scott Learn, The Oregonian
September 28, 2009, 12:58PM
RICHLAND, Wash. - Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation have removed a 1.2 million gallon basin that once held 1,100 tons of spent uranium fuel roads, the U.S. Department of Energy says, and are beginning to clean up contaminated soil underneath the basin.
Contractor CH2M Hill's Plateau Remediation Company started excavating the contaminated soil on Sunday, meeting a deadline under DOE's agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington.
Earlier this month, workers finished years of work removing the K East Basin that once stored highly radioactive materials underwater, one of the greatest hazards at the former plutonium production site.
The basin held spent nuclear fuel from Hanford's nine reactors beneath 20 feet of water for shielding. Soil underneath the concrete basin was contaminated by leaks in the 1970s and 1990s, DOE says.
From October 2008 to early September, workers filled more than 2,000 large containers with low-level radioactive waste from inside the basin. It was disposed of in a lined landfill on site.
Cleanup of contaminated soil under the basin could be completed as early as next spring, DOE officials said, depending on the type of contamination found and the extent of its spread.
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/hanford_nuclear_reservation_ta.html
Showing posts with label cleanup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleanup. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
First trainload of uranium tailings leaves Moab
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
MOAB — The first trainload of radioactive uranium tailings has been taken from a dump site near Moab.
U.S. Department of Energy officials say they’re still testing equipment and travel routes that are designed to eventually move 16 million tons of uranium waste to a disposal site 30 miles away at Crescent Junction.
The first trainload departed on Monday.
Don Metzler, project director for DOE, says the system is expected to be fully operational after a ribbon-cutting ceremony early next month.
After May 4, a train with 88 containers full of the sludge will depart in the evenings Monday through Thursday. This summer, train shipments are planned to increase to seven days a week.
The tailings near the Colorado River are leftovers from a former uranium mill about three miles northwest of Moab.
http://www.standard.net/live/news/170421
MOAB — The first trainload of radioactive uranium tailings has been taken from a dump site near Moab.
U.S. Department of Energy officials say they’re still testing equipment and travel routes that are designed to eventually move 16 million tons of uranium waste to a disposal site 30 miles away at Crescent Junction.
The first trainload departed on Monday.
Don Metzler, project director for DOE, says the system is expected to be fully operational after a ribbon-cutting ceremony early next month.
After May 4, a train with 88 containers full of the sludge will depart in the evenings Monday through Thursday. This summer, train shipments are planned to increase to seven days a week.
The tailings near the Colorado River are leftovers from a former uranium mill about three miles northwest of Moab.
http://www.standard.net/live/news/170421
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Stimulus bill expected to restart mine cleanup
Perhaps mine cleanup will eventually produce the hundreds of jobs that VUI/Santoy claim their mine will bring to the area? GV
By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer Joan Lowy, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 15, 8:18 am ET
WASHINGTON – When the Beal Mountain mine opened in 1988 near Butte, Mont., its owner promoted open-pit cyanide leaching for extracting gold from ore as modern and environmentally friendly.
Pegasus Gold Corp., a Canadian company, extracted nearly 460,000 ounces of gold over a decade before closing the mine and declaring bankruptcy in 1998.
It left behind a 70-acre, cyanide-contaminated leach pond with a leaky liner and tons of rubble that sends selenium-laced runoff into streams, threatening cutthroat trout and other fish. The $6.2 million reclamation bond posted by the company doesn't come close to covering the full cost to clean up the mine, which could total nearly $40 million.
"There is a real ticking time bomb up there," said Josh Vincent, president of a Trout Unlimited chapter near the mine, which sits on U.S. Forest Service land.
Efforts to clean up one of the West's most enduring and dangerous legacies — tens of thousands of abandoned hardrock mines, many dating to the 19th century — should get a boost from the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Barack Obama's signature.
The final bill, approved by the House and Senate on Friday, contains more than $1.5 billion for construction and maintenance projects in the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. That includes addressing pollution and safety hazards caused by abandoned mines on public lands.
The three agencies together spent about $25 million on mine cleanup in the budget year that ended last Sept. 30, according to the staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the lawmakers who sought the money.
Projects ranging from repairing trails to replacing equipment also are eligible for the money, so there is no guarantee the money will be spent on mine cleanup. The bill says preference is supposed to go to projects that generate most jobs.
Advocates for cleaning up abandoned mines say the work is a strong job-generator.
"These much needed funds will create thousands of jobs, reduce water pollution, eliminate public safety threats, and restore fish and wildlife habitat in rural communities across the country," said Lauren Pagel, policy director for Earthworks, an environmental group focused on mining issues.
The Government Accountability Office estimates there are at least 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines in Alaska and 11 other western states, plus South Dakota. Open mine shafts and decaying structures pose safety hazards, contaminants are polluting streams and groundwater, and piles of tailings tinged with arsenic have been left behind.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates it could cost as much as $50 billion to clean up all the nation's abandoned hardrock mines.
Anti-tax groups questioned whether mine clean up merits funds at all, considering that the bill is intended to jump-start the economy. Cleanups are temporary and unlikely to have any lasting economic effect, said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, which advocates for less government spending.
"It's not like anyone is going to dig in these mines ever again," he said.
A report last year by the Interior Department's inspector general said abandoned mines on BLM and National Park Service land are exposing people to dangerous contaminants such as arsenic, lead and mercury. Other dangers include deadly gases, collapsing mine walls and explosive chemicals.
Among the dangers outlined in the report: all-terrain vehicle riders falling into abandoned mine shafts.
In 2007, a 13-year-old girl was killed and her 10-year-old sister seriously injured when the all-terrain vehicle they were riding ran off a trail and fell into a 125-foot mine shaft a short distance from a BLM campground near Chloride, Ariz.
At the Mojave National Preserve in California, investigators found mine shafts along roads that were large enough to swallow cars.
"The potential for more deaths and injuries is ominous," the report said.
By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer Joan Lowy, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 15, 8:18 am ET
WASHINGTON – When the Beal Mountain mine opened in 1988 near Butte, Mont., its owner promoted open-pit cyanide leaching for extracting gold from ore as modern and environmentally friendly.
Pegasus Gold Corp., a Canadian company, extracted nearly 460,000 ounces of gold over a decade before closing the mine and declaring bankruptcy in 1998.
It left behind a 70-acre, cyanide-contaminated leach pond with a leaky liner and tons of rubble that sends selenium-laced runoff into streams, threatening cutthroat trout and other fish. The $6.2 million reclamation bond posted by the company doesn't come close to covering the full cost to clean up the mine, which could total nearly $40 million.
"There is a real ticking time bomb up there," said Josh Vincent, president of a Trout Unlimited chapter near the mine, which sits on U.S. Forest Service land.
Efforts to clean up one of the West's most enduring and dangerous legacies — tens of thousands of abandoned hardrock mines, many dating to the 19th century — should get a boost from the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Barack Obama's signature.
The final bill, approved by the House and Senate on Friday, contains more than $1.5 billion for construction and maintenance projects in the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. That includes addressing pollution and safety hazards caused by abandoned mines on public lands.
The three agencies together spent about $25 million on mine cleanup in the budget year that ended last Sept. 30, according to the staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the lawmakers who sought the money.
Projects ranging from repairing trails to replacing equipment also are eligible for the money, so there is no guarantee the money will be spent on mine cleanup. The bill says preference is supposed to go to projects that generate most jobs.
Advocates for cleaning up abandoned mines say the work is a strong job-generator.
"These much needed funds will create thousands of jobs, reduce water pollution, eliminate public safety threats, and restore fish and wildlife habitat in rural communities across the country," said Lauren Pagel, policy director for Earthworks, an environmental group focused on mining issues.
The Government Accountability Office estimates there are at least 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines in Alaska and 11 other western states, plus South Dakota. Open mine shafts and decaying structures pose safety hazards, contaminants are polluting streams and groundwater, and piles of tailings tinged with arsenic have been left behind.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates it could cost as much as $50 billion to clean up all the nation's abandoned hardrock mines.
Anti-tax groups questioned whether mine clean up merits funds at all, considering that the bill is intended to jump-start the economy. Cleanups are temporary and unlikely to have any lasting economic effect, said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, which advocates for less government spending.
"It's not like anyone is going to dig in these mines ever again," he said.
A report last year by the Interior Department's inspector general said abandoned mines on BLM and National Park Service land are exposing people to dangerous contaminants such as arsenic, lead and mercury. Other dangers include deadly gases, collapsing mine walls and explosive chemicals.
Among the dangers outlined in the report: all-terrain vehicle riders falling into abandoned mine shafts.
In 2007, a 13-year-old girl was killed and her 10-year-old sister seriously injured when the all-terrain vehicle they were riding ran off a trail and fell into a 125-foot mine shaft a short distance from a BLM campground near Chloride, Ariz.
At the Mojave National Preserve in California, investigators found mine shafts along roads that were large enough to swallow cars.
"The potential for more deaths and injuries is ominous," the report said.
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