The final 1 million tons of uranium mill tailings from a pile near the Colorado River at Moab, Utah has been removed, the Department of Energy said this week.
In a Tuesday announcement, DOE said work crews for contractor North Wind Portage have successfully removed all 16 million tons of tailings and other contaminated material from its Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project site.
Since 2009, workers have been shipping contaminated material by rail to an engineered disposal cell 30 miles north at Crescent Junction, Utah.
“Safely relocating 16 million tons and completing excavation of the tailings pile is a major milestone in risk reduction and protection of public health and the environment,” Moab UMTRA Project Federal Cleanup Director Matt Udovitsch said in the statement.
Final closure is expected in 2029, DOE has said. The Moab site is a 480-acre tract that includes a former privately owned uranium-ore processing facility that operated from 1956 to 1984.