Friday, April 16, 1999
Fernald uranium will be moved
4,000 tons headed for Piketon site
The Associated Press
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to move about 4,000 tons of uranium now stored at its Fernald site to another southern Ohio location in order to comply with Fernald cleanup deadlines, the government announced Thursday.
The truck shipments of uranium will begin in June and last for about a year to move the uranium metal and powder from the Cincinnati-area Fernald site to the Energy Department's gaseous diffusion plant in Piketon. The Energy Department expects that about 270 truck shipments will be needed to move the uranium over the nearly 100-mile route, spokesman Steve Wyatt said.
The Department of Energy (DOE) hopes to sell the uranium for use in commercial or military applications. The department has been trying to sell, or encourage private reuse, of some materials, equipment and plants at various Cold War operations nationwide that the DOE is trying to clean of radioactive contamination.
The 1,050-acre Fernald operation processed uranium for the government's production elsewhere of nuclear weapons from 1951 until production ceased in 1989 to focus on cleanup of radioactive wastes. The site is 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati.
The 4,000 tons of depleted or slightly enriched uranium to be moved from Fernald was in the processing pipeline when production stopped.
The uranium could be worth more than $9 million, Mr. Wyatt said. But a glut of uranium on world markets could affect efforts to sell the material. It is to be stored indefinitely in a warehouse being refurbished at Piketon.
Removing the material from Fernald will enable the DOE to demolish the old contaminated buildings housing the material.
Crews can get at tainted soil under the buildings and continue to meet cleanup deadlines the Energy Department negotiated with federal and state regulators, said Graham Mitchell, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) official who oversees federal facilities.
The OEPA expects safe shipments of the material, he said. The shipments must meet U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.
The truck shipments to Piketon will likely move along Ohio 32, the best route in the southern Ohio region, Mr. Wyatt said.
Metal boxes and 55-gallon steel drums will be used to ship the uranium, he said.
In December 1997, the Energy Department sold 2.1 million pounds of enriched uranium stored at Fernald to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.'s Uranium Asset Management subsidiary.
The British firm said it would further enrich the Fernald uranium to sell it as commercial reactor fuel in the United Kingdom for electricity production.
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