The EM Consolidated Business Center and DOE's Office of Legacy Management recently signed an agreement to expand collaboration on EM’s UMTRA Project.
Office of Environmental Management
June 25, 2019
minute read time
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The EM Consolidated Business Center and DOE's Office of Legacy Management (LM) recently signed an agreement to expand collaboration on EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project, which could save taxpayer dollars and improve construction of a waste disposal cell.
The Moab Project ships mill tailings from its site in Moab, Utah to its permanent disposal cell in Crescent Junction, Utah. Currently, the Moab Project is constructing a rock cover for the cell. Although most of the cover materials are obtained onsite, a substantial quantity of rock is shipped in by truck from about 90 miles away.
Moab Project leaders are reevaluating the cell cover’s design to increase its long-term performance and reduce the cost of transporting the rock to the Crescent Junction Site.
LM monitors 44 permanent disposal cells, landfills, and other impoundments across the U.S. and has expertise on various cell covers. The Moab Project will draw from LM’s knowledge while investigating other cell cover designs, including evapotranspiration covers. Those covers are composed of rock and soil, and topped with vegetation. They soak up precipitation until it evaporates naturally or transpires through plants.
Under the agreement, the Moab Project will make the Moab and Crescent Junction sites available to LM to expand its research capabilities. LM will help EM conduct investigations on the effectiveness of evapotranspiration covers at the Crescent Junction Site, provide recommendations and expertise on cover design, and assist with regulatory approvals.
LM is slated to take over long-term surveillance at the millsite and disposal cell once tailings relocation is complete and the cover has been constructed. The transition is currently anticipated for the 2030s.
The Moab Project is relocating tailings and other contaminated material from a former uranium-ore processing facility to the disposal cell, about 30 miles north. The tailings are a sand-like material that remain from processing uranium ore.