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Denver Radium Sites Forty nine properties in Denver are contaminated with radioactive soils and debris
abandoned after the collapse of the city's World War I radium industry. The city of Denver
has sued over one of the sites, Shattuck Chemical.
Nuclear reactors Fort St. Vrain the nation's
only high temperature gas cooled reactor, located 35 miles north of Denver, near
Platteville. Fort St. Vrain's nuclear waste consists of used or "spent" fuel and
low-level waste items such as paper overalls, gloves, floor covering materials, filters,
etc. Low-level waste was stored in sealed drums at the plant and was transported to
government-approved burial sites outside of Colorado. "Spent" fuel is stored at
an on-site storage facility. Pending the completion of legal matters with the state of
Idaho, waste will eventually be sent to the U.S. Department of Energy's disposal site at
Idaho Falls, Idaho. See Sierra Club policy on Decommissioning Nuclear Reactors.
Plowshares
["Atoms for Peace"]
- Rio Blanco, Rulison and Other
Plowshare Sites
- Department of Energy [DOE] conducted the Rulison and Rio Blanco nuclear explosion tests
under the umbrella of the Plowshares program, the Atomic Energy Commission's xploration of
the "peaceful" uses of nuclear explosives. The Rio Blanco and Rulison tests were
designed to increase natural gas production from low-permeability sandstone.
- Project Rulison detonation took place in September 1969 at a depth of 2,568 meters
(8,426 feet) in a sandstone formation near Rifle, Colorado. The shot was the second of the
gas production stimulation experiments in the Plowshare Program.
- Project Rio Blanco test, which was located approximately 36 miles northwest of Rifle,
consisted of the nearly simultaneous detonation of three 33-kiloton devices in a 2,130
meter (7,000 feet) well in May 1973. The Rio Blanco test was the third gas production
stimulation experiment in the Plowshare Program.
- Visit DOE's OpenNet to read Plowshare Program Summary
in PDF. You'll need Adobe Acrobat.
- Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless radioactive gas created by the natural decay
of naturally-occurring uranium in soil. Check the Indoor Radon page at CDPHE.
- Health Effects of Exposure to Indoor
Radon, the BEIR VI Report has found radon to be the second leading cause of lung
cancer in the U.S. and a serious public health problem. The study fully supports EPA
estimates that radon causes about 15,000 lung cancer deaths per year.
- Rocky Flats was the largest generator of TRU waste. Read about mediocre cleanup
at the Flats.
Nuclear Legacies @ PBS. Security @ the Flats by Wackenhut. Also read the saga of the Trooper, A Dump, And a Tale Of Doubt...radioactive
wastewater from Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant dumped at Lowry Bombing Range.
- Rocky Flats Grand Jury report...all of it,
uncensored.
- Links at Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment...DOE Rocky Flats page...Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board
- Currently at the request of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, GAO plans to
conduct an evaluation of DOE's ability to close the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology
Site as scheduled (job code 141188). GAO's principal focus will be to (1) examine what DOE
anticipates as the environmental status of the site at closure; including restrictions on
future uses of the site; (2) determine what major projects must completed to reach site
closure and how DOE plans to accelerate them and achieve closure by 2006; (3) identify
what slippages have already occurred or are likely to occur; (4) identify what on-site and
complex-wide factors and activities may impact DOE's ability to achieve site closure by
2006; (5) determine whether the major stakeholders for Rocky Flats agree with the planned
activities and the complex-wide actions necessary to achieve closure by 2006; and (6)
examine the potential cost and savings implications of the original schedule for closure
by 2010, the accelerated schedule for closure by 2006, and the slippages from the
accelerated schedule.
Uranium Mill Tailings Uranium is used as a fuel to produce weapons materials and also to produce electricity
in nuclear power plants. Uranium ore has been mined in the U.S. for over 40 years. Raw
uranium ore is milled to concentrate the uranium, leaving tailings behind. Tailings are
leftover rock and debris containing residual uranium and radium. In the 1950s and 1960s
uranium mill tailings were used as fill dirt in some construction activities. The Uranium
Mill Tailings Remedial Action project addresses the cleanup of these sites and properties
contaminated with tailings.
Colorado Sites
- Maybell (Active Site)
- Rifle (2) (Completed Site)
- Grand Junction Gunnison
(Completed Site)
- Naturita (Active Site)
- Slick Rock (2) (Completed Site)
- Durango (Completed Site)
Uranium Mining and Milling
- Canon City Uranium Mill and safety concerns at Lincoln Park approximately 1-1/2 miles
south of Canon City. Liquid wastes containing radionuclides and heavy metals were
discharged from 1958 to 1978 into eleven unlined tailings ponds. $2.9 million awarded in Cotter
suit to 14 residents of Can~on City who were contaminated by the Cotter Corp.
uranium-processing mill during the 1970s and '80s. The jury took only six hours to reach a
decision after listening to nearly 25 days of testimony, presided over by U.S. District
Court Judge Zita Weinshienk. Included in the verdict was a provision to provide the 14
residents with lifetime monitoring for cancer and other illnesses.
- Uranium Mining and the Colorado Plateau
photographic record of this period was donated to the Museum of Western Colorado by the
Grand Junction Office of the U.S. Department of Energy
- Uravan owned by
Umetco Minerals
Regulatory classifications
of waste...contributes to the waste dilemma both in Colorado and around the
nation
- High Level Radioactive Waste (HLW) - The radioactive waste material
that results from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste produced
directly from reprocessing and any solid waste derived from the liquid that contains a
combination of transuranic and fission product nuclides in quantities that require
permanent isolation. HLW is also a mixed waste because it has highly corrosive components
or has organics or heavy metals that are regulated under RCRA. HLW may include other
highly radioactive material that NRC, consistent with existing law, determines by rule
requires permanent isolation. Yucca
Mountain has been proposed by DOE as a potential geologic depository for this waste.
See Sierra Club policy
on this type of waste.
- Low-Level Mixed Waste (LLMW) - LLMW is waste that contains LLRW and
hazardous waste.
- Low-Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW or LLW) - LLRW is waste that
satisfies the definition of LLRW in the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act
of 1985. The LLRWPAA defines LLRW as "radioactive material that (A) is not high-level
radioactive waste, spent nuclear fuel, or byproduct material as defined in section 11e.2
of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954) and;(B) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, consistent
with existing law and in accordance with paragraph (A), classifies as low-level
radioactive waste." In a sense, LLRW is defined by what it is not and consequently is
the most broad category of waste. It encompasses materials that are slightly above natural
radiation background levels to highly radioactive materials which require extreme caution
when handling (Greater than Class C - GTCC). See Sierra Club policy
on this waste.
- Mixed Transuranic Waste (MTRU) - MTRU contains both Transuranic (TRU) and hazardous
wastes. Approximately 55% of DOE's TRU is MTRU.
- Mixed Waste (MW) - MW contains both hazardous
waste (as defined by RCRA and its amendments) and
radioactive waste (as defined by AEA and its amendments). It is
jointly regulated by NRC or NRC's Agreement States and EPA or EPA's RCRA Authorized
States. The fundamental and most comprehensive statutory definition is found in the
Federal Facilities Compliance Act (FFCA) where Section 1004(41) was added to RCRA:
"The term 'mixed waste' means waste that contains both hazardous waste and source, special nuclear, or byproduct material subject to the Atomic
Energy Act of 1954.
- Transuranic Radioactive Waste (TRU) - TRU waste contains more than 100
nanocuries of alpha-emitting transuranic isotopes, with half-lives greater than twenty
years, per gram of waste, except for (1) high-level radioactive waste; (2) wastes that DOE
has determined, with the concurrence of EPA, do not need the degree of isolation required
by EPA's high level waste rule (40 CFR 191); or (3) has approved for disposal on a
case-by-case basis in accordance with NRC's radioactive land disposal regulation (10 CFR
Part 61). TRU is not generally found outside the DOE complex and is mainly produced from
the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, nuclear weapons production, and reactor fuel
assembly. TRU wastes mainly emit alpha particles as they break-down. DOE is currently
proceeding with plans for TRU waste disposal at a geologic repository called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)
near Carlsbad, New Mexico. DOE categorizes TRU as either Contact Handled (CH) or Remote
Handled (RH) with RH being the more radioactive of the two.
NRC - For Release June 29, 1998: NRC REQUIRES
INFORMATION FROM URANIUM PROCESSORS ABOUT "YEAR 2000" COMPUTER READINESS The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has notified licensees and certificate holders who
process uranium to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants that they are required
to inform the NRC of steps being taken to ensure their computer systems will function
properly by the year 2000 and beyond. Notifications went to those who operate uranium
hexafluoride production plants, uranium enrichment plants and uranium fuel fabrication
plants.
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