Meeting will focus on tailings project in Moab

The Department of Energy is hosting a public meeting Thursday in Moab to talk about the next steps toward moving 16 million tons of uranium-mill tailings dumped for about 30 years near the Colorado River northwest of the city.

Department of Energy officials this week said workers have already removed 123 million gallons of contaminated groundwater containing 533,000 pounds of ammonia and 2,400 pounds of uranium that had leached from the pile and was on its way to the river.

EnergySolutions last year was awarded a $98 million contract to get the tailings project under way. Company officials will be at the meeting in Moab to talk about their plan to move the tailings by rail over the next 20 years to a 250-acre site 30 miles away in Crescent Junction.

The Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have each weighed in favorably on the project, which has an anticipated completion date of 2028. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, had previously accused the department of dragging its feet as he pushed for a 2019 deadline to complete the transfer of the tailings.

EnergySolutions and Union Pacific Railroad signed an agreement last month for rail services and upgrades to an existing line that will become the primary mode of transportation for the waste, left over from uranium operations near Moab that began in the 1950s and continued until 1984.

So far, EnergySolutions crews have excavated over half of the 2 million cubic yards of earth needed to create a new disposal site for the tailings. Union Pacific is expected to replace railroad ties and spikes, install switches and upgrade road crossings along its track between Moab and Crescent Junction.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Grand Center, 182 N. 500 West St. in Moab.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com