Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project, fiscal year 1995 annual report to stakeholders

In 1978, Congress authorized the DOE to assess and clean up contamination at 24 designated former uranium processing sites. The DOE is also responsible for cleaning up properties in the vicinity of the sites where wind and water erosion deposited tailings or people removed them from the site for use in construction or landscaping projects. Cleanup is being undertaken in cooperation with state governments and Indian tribes within whose boundaries the sites are located. It is being conducted in two phases: the surface project and the ground water project. This report addresses specifics about both phases of the UMTRA Project. DOE`s UMTRA Project is the world`s largest materials management project ever undertaken to reduce or eliminate risk to the general public from exposure to potentially hazardous and radioactive materials. With an estimated cost at completion of nearly $2 billion for both phases of the UMTRA Project, and with the responsibility for encapsulating and isolating almost one-fourth of all the uranium mill tailings generated across the entire US (more than 44 million cubic yards), the UMTRA Project and its people have achieved a long record of safely and effectively completing its mission. It continually enhances its national reputation through its diligent process and cost efficiency as well as its international recognition for its technological innovation