Last year EnergySolutions was awarded a $98 million contract to get the project going through the first phase, ending in 2011. To date, Congress has only funded a first phase. If the decision came soon to transport the tailings by truck, Ward said his company could start moving waste by this fall. The rail option would mean a start date in spring or summer 2009.

Watchdogs like Sierra Club's Mark Clemens have spoken out in favor of rail over putting a lot of trucks on U.S. 191, thereby jeopardizing the safety of travelers along that popular route for tourists. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has accused the DOE of dragging its feet, pushing for the 2019 completion date. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, took credit earlier this year for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that he said moved the completion deadline up from 2028 to Matheson's target date.

Ward said it will be up to the DOE, which earlier this year put the truck option on the table, to decide on using trucks or trains. Ryan said both methods will incorporate hard lids to avoid blowing dust during transport. EnergySolutions will be mindful of the dust during loading at the pile, situated close to Moab residents.

"Dust suppression is an integral part of the project," Ward said. "You're not going to see huge clouds of dust coming off the pile."

Investigators have been looking at gamma readings and evidence of contaminated residential lots which, so far, have resulted in the cleanup of a mess at one residence and at an unoccupied site adjacent to the tailings site. Ryan said blowing dust from the pile was the likely culprit on those two cases.

One plus, she noted, is that the pile, which became a DOE site in 2001, has never been "abandoned" and has been managed in some way to prevent the spread of contamination. The latest efforts along those lines included placing sandbags in some areas around the site. When spring runoff flows peaked last month, Ryan said water either didn't reach the sandbags or it was held back, preventing any interaction between flood flows and tailings.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com