Moab uranium mill tailings pile

In 1952 U.S. geologist Charles Steen found the largest uranium deposit in the United States near Moab, Utah.

[1] It is believed that pollutants from the waste tailings are leaching into the river, inferred from the lethal effect on fish, primarily from high concentrations of ammonia.

The site was transferred to the United States Department of Energy for remediation under Title 1 of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act in 2001.

The proposed holding site is public land at Crescent Junction, Utah, about 30 mi (48 km) from the Colorado River.

[needs update] A series of works to extract and evaporate the water and ammonia from the pile before it reaches the Colorado River has been completed.

A series of amendments to the Defense Authorization Act, sponsored by Rep. Jim Matheson are attempting to move the completion date to 2019.

According to the current plan, huge "dirty" trucks pull 40-ton containers filled with tailings to a structure that will be located between the talings and Potash Road.

A radiological survey verifies that they have no radioactive material on the outside, and the containers will then be hauled by "clean" trucks up to a railroad line to be placed on rail cars for the transportation to the disposal site near Crescent Junction.

Once at Crescent Junction the process will be reversed, with the exception that the tailings will be dumped out of end gates rather than from the top to minimize dust as well as prevent contamination to the outside containers.

[11] "Over the next several years, DOE expects to ship nearly one million tons of uranium mill tailings annually to the Crescent Junction disposal site.

"[12] "DOE also plans to continue transportation and disposal of oversize debris from the Moab Site, including 14 autoclaves decommissioned by the Atlas Minerals Corporation.