AW: [ RadSafe ] Obit for Charlie Steen, the uranium king

[Brian Rees]

And during that time, how much water has flowed down the Colorado River, 
containing how much uranium, ammonia, and other materials?  I'd hazard a 
guess that the potential leakage from the tailings pile (which is LESS than 
what was removed) is a small percentage of the total that flowed past in 
the river.

(Obviously)  My own personal opinion.

Brian Rees


At 07:12 AM 3/21/2006, Orthen, Rick wrote:
>Phil,
>
>While there is no doubt the radiological aspect of the Atlas legacy has
>potentially affected human health (e.g., some of the tailings were used
>during building construction), uranium is but one of 5 constituents of
>potential concern present in the tailings pile and groundwater (the
>others are ammonia, copper, sulfate, and manganese).  In the NRC's 1999
>EIS, the preferred alternative was to stabilize the tailings pile in
>place, but this analysis ignored the seepage of contaminated groundwater
>into the adjacent Colorado River.  When this deficiency was noted by the
>US Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) as endangering four fish species and
>critical habitat, the alternatives were revisited with the record of
>decision as it is today (offsite relocation of the tailings and
>groundwater remediation).
>
>According to the Moab, UT UMTRA Project website, as of February 2006,
>over 1.2 million gallons of tailings pore fluid has been removed for
>evaporation.  This fluid contained over 65,000 kg of ammonia and 65 kg
>of uranium and is no longer available for release into groundwater.
>Coincidently, nearly 37 million gallons of groundwater has been
>extracted containing 330 kg of uranium and 95,000 kg of ammonia.
>
>Rick Orthen
>CEC Inc.
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