Removing the West’s largest & most dangerous sources of carcinogens is a long battle (uranium)

[jpak]

http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/utah/uranium_issues.php

The Atlas Minerals Corporation and its predecessors left behind a mountain of radioactive waste — a 16-million-ton pile of uranium tailings along the Colorado River near Moab, Utah — when mining operations ceased in 1984. The contamination leaching from this pile impacts not only the river but also millions of downstream water users. The Atlas site is the largest site ever remediated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and it has contributed significantly more pollution to the Colorado River than all nine tailings piles that have already been removed from the watershed. Furthermore, risk of catastrophic failure of the tailings pile is real — either from slumping during inundation by high spring flows in the Colorado or from a flood in Moab Wash, which historically flowed directly through the location of the tailings pile.

Over the past 25 years, several regulatory agencies have resisted efforts to clean up this poison. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission initially tried to literally cover the problem with dirt and rocks. Eventually, authority for cleaning up the site was transferred to DOE — but the agency resisted moving the wastes because of the high cost.

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and yes - we the taxpayers pay again and again and again for stupid deadly nucular power.

yup

:thumbsdown:

[jpak]

1. More info

http://www.wise-uranium.org/udmoa.html

Moab uranium tailings relocation reaches million-short ton milestone

The U.S. Energy Department said this week that more than 1 million (short) tons of uranium mill tailings have been moved from the banks of the Colorado River near Moab to a disposal cell 30 miles away at Crescent Junction, north of Interstate 70. Federal stimulus funds has helped pay for about half of the volume moved so far. (The Salt Lake Tribune Mar. 4, 2010)

Moab tailings relocation suspended after truck accident

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 (Oct. 14). The multimillion-dollar cleanup project was suspended until Tuesday (Oct. 20) for a safety evaluation, EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said. EnergySolutions 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. The driver was fine but taken to the hospital for a precautionary evaluation, he said. (Deseret News Oct. 18, 2009)

DOE officials developing "aggressive solutions" for groundwater remediation at Atlas Moab uranium mill tailings site

The presence of ammonia in a "backwater" between the Atlas tailings pile and the Colorado River is complicating things slightly at the Moab Tailings Project site, according to Department of Energy Project Director Don Metzler. "Our goal is to get this down to 1 ppm," Metzler said.
"There is a likelihood we could get funded so that the project is done in 10 years," Metzler said, noting that the original planning for the tailings removal allowed for 20 years to get the job done. That means 10 years less time to work out groundwater issues, he said.
Now the project works out an aggressive solution, according to Metzler. One possibility under consideration is to increase the pH (reduce acidity) so that the ammonia will gasify into the air. Another possibility would be to treat the water to remove both ammonia and uranium from it. But that would be more expensive and would take resources away from moving the tailings faster, Metzler said. (Moab Times Oct. 1, 2009)

2019 deadline for completion of Moab uranium tailings relocation becoming realistic, if additonal funding is provided

Will relocation of the Atlas tailings pile be completed by 2019 as required by federal law? "The odds are getting better and better all the time," said Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) during a recent tour of the Atlas site with Department of Energy and Grand County officials. Given a boost from federal economic stimulus funds, the project will begin shipping containers on two trains per day starting Aug. 17, DOE officials said. In November, those trains will increase from 22 cars each to 34 cars, according to DOE project director Don Metzler. With that expansion the 2019 deadline becomes realistic, provided that, once the stimulus funds are used up, extra money is appropriated by Congress or allocated to the Moab project away from other DOE projects, Metzler said. (Moab Times Aug. 13, 2009)

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[NNadir]

4. Actually, if you know science, uranium, a natural element, is not even close to being the most....

potent carcinogen.

Most of the uranium that is distributed around the country as aerosols - unremarked by anti-science anti-nukes - comes from coal burning.

Anyone who knew the geochemistry of the naturally occurring element uranium would understand how it interacts with carbon.

Speaking of carbon, anyone with even a remote sense of toxicology would also understand that the most widely distributed carcinogens are all air pollutants, which kills continuously in vast amounts, with not a whit of attention from uneducated, unscientific and uninformed anti-nukes.

[jpak]

6. Actually - uranium is an alpha emitter and many uranium daughter products are radioactive too

this is why uranium miners and uranium enrichment workers DIE from exposure to uranium particles and radon.

You obviously know NOTHING about science.

yup!

:rofl:

[Statistical]

7. 21,000 to 200,000 Americans die from Radon exposure in the home every year.

It is natural. Not everything natural is safe.

The number of people killed by natural radon exposure far exceeds any deaths from Uranium mining.

[jpak]

8. So ionizing radiation is dangerous? and there is no threshold "safe" exposure level?

who knew?

:rofl:

[Go2Peace]

9. So is arsenic, so you advocating we ignore it and encourage industry to dump it?

[ensho]

2. true - we are nuts to keep on paying and paying so we can get cancer

nt

[newfie11]

3. I lived outside Ambrosia Lake NM in 1958

and saw uranium piles daily. I saw it blow in the wind as it was only contained with an atlas fence. Our school bus went right through the dust. Piles of pitch blend cores were all over the ranch land from test drilling. My father died with stomach cancer, My mother and 2 sister and myself all are hypothyroid. So yeah this stuff is horrible.

Now in my state, Nebraska, the uranium is being mined by injecting water underground to get more uranium. Our wonderful governor gives his full consent to this. Of course he does not live anywhere near the areas this is happening. This can and will contaminate wells. So it starts all over again. This technique is being used in SD on oil wells and has contaminated drinking wells.

When I lived/worked in another state, a ranch family came into where I worked. They were all to have thyroid ultrasounds because their well was contaminated with cesium-137. They lived next to a large air force base with underground nuclear missiles. The mother and one of the 3 children had thyroid nodules.

How the cesium got into their water is/was unknown but the military was the ones that alerted them to test their well.

[kristopher]

5. Excellent example of the same regulatory coziness that brought down the banks.

There is no possible way to ensure against bad management and a corrupted oversight process.

If you think it was bad when the Federal Reserve, SEC and Treasury let us down as watchdogs of Wall Street, imagine the new meaning that "too big to fail" will take on when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inevitable failures come home to roost.