Latest Breaking News

bananas

(27,509 posts) Mon Jan 5, 2015, 01:48 PM Jan 2015

Parks Township nuclear waste dump plan released

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The cleanup of the Parks Township nuclear waste dump is expected to expand so it can accommodate more dangerous material found at the site and could carry a price tag more than 10 times the original estimates.

In the revised plan for the site, released today by the Army Corps of Engineers, the government says it expects the new cleanup plan to cost about $412 million and take 10 years to complete.

<snip>

The long-awaited cleanup of the nuclear waste dump owned by the former Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. in Apollo (later owned by Arco and Babock & Wilcox) was halted in late 2011 when the Corps found unexpected amounts of complex nuclear materials.

At the same time, the contractor hired by the Corps mishandled some of the nuclear waste, which could have caused a nuclear chain reaction, potentially injuring workers and contaminating the nearby environment.

<snip>

The Army Corps of Engineers will hold a hearing on the revised site plan for the Park Township nuclear waste dump at 7 p.m., Jan. 27, at the Parks Township Volunteer Fire Department, 1119 Dalmatian Drive, Parks Township.

To view the revised site plan online: http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/Portals/72/docs/SLDA/SLDA%20PropRODAmend(Final)V4.pdf

1 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Parks Township nuclear waste dump plan released (Original Post) bananas Jan 2015 OP

March 2014: Report: More dangerous radioactive waste near Apollo than first thought bananas Jan 2015 #1

bananas

(27,509 posts)

1. March 2014: Report: More dangerous radioactive waste near Apollo than first thought

Reply to bananas (Original post)

Mon Jan 5, 2015, 01:51 PM

Jan 2015

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2014/03/14/Federal-report-finds-nuclear-waste-underestimated-at-Armstrong-County-site/stories/201403140175

Report: More dangerous radioactive waste near Apollo than first thought
March 15, 2014 12:06 AM

By Amy McConnell Schaarsmith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A nuclear waste dump in Armstrong County where radioactive materials were buried in the 1960s and 1970s contains more dangerous weapons-grade uranium and plutonium than originally thought, calling into question federal oversight of the waste's disposal and greatly complicating its cleanup, according to a report released earlier this month by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's own investigators.

Much of the waste was produced during the process of manufacturing fuel for commercial nuclear power plants and the Navy's nuclear submarines, along with other nuclear manufacturing and decontamination processes, by the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) and Atlantic Richfield Co. The Babcock and Wilcox Co. most recently owned the land before closing the plant in 1983.

The report from the regulatory commission's Office of Inspector General, in response to questions from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., to the commission, describes a record-keeping system of the nuclear waste disposed of in 10 unlined burial trenches at the 44-acre Shallow Land Disposal Area as incomplete, with many records apparently missing or superficially written.
Homeland Security watches over nuclear waste dump in Apollo

When the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. in Apollo closed, a nuclear waste dump was formed. When more "complex" nuclear materials were discovered, the Department of Homeland Security became involved. (Video by Andrew Rush; 8/12/2012)

And because no one knows exactly what is contained in the waste site, and how much of it is there -- information that became classified in 2012 -- efforts to clean up the site have been placed on hold while the Army Corps of Engineers makes a plan to deal with even the most dangerous types of waste.

<snip>

Reply to this discussion