EM’s Moab UMTRA Project surpassed its fiscal 2018 target to ship uranium mill tailings from the Moab Site to a disposal cell.
Office of Environmental Management
October 2, 2018
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MOAB, Utah – EM’s Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project surpassed its fiscal 2018 target to ship uranium mill tailings from the Moab Site to a disposal cell. Crews safely moved 477,667 tons of the residual radioactive material away from the Colorado River, outpacing the project goal of shipping 445,421 tons by about 7 percent. Overall, the project has removed more than 9 million tons of tailings from the Moab Site, or 58 percent of the estimated 16-million-ton total. The project is relocating tailings and other contaminated material from a former uranium-ore processing facility in Moab to the disposal cell near Crescent Junction, about 30 miles north. The tailings are a sand-like material that remain from processing uranium ore. The project ships two trains a week, each carrying 144 containers of the material. In fiscal 2018, crews added an additional rail car to each train, allowing for more material to be shipped.