Moab Project Hosts DOE Office of Legacy Management Interns for Tours

Interns from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management view the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project’s Moab site from a hillside rail bench overlook.

MOAB, Utah — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project recently welcomed student interns from the DOE Office of Legacy Management’s (LM) STEM Summer Internship Program for tours.

The interns got a firsthand look at how the Moab Project continues to safely relocate and dispose of uranium mill tailings and other contaminated waste from the Moab site to an engineered disposal cell at Crescent Junction, Utah, while addressing groundwater contamination to protect the surrounding environment and the Colorado River.

The tours gave the interns a perspective on the scale and complexity of environmental remediation work, connecting classroom and program learning with the practical realities of a long-term federal cleanup project. The visit also highlighted how DOE is collaborating across offices to provide science, technology, engineering and math students with opportunities for hands-on education and engagement.

The interns' visit comes after LM representatives toured the Moab Project earlier this year. Such tours serve as a valuable interagency opportunity. Upon completing the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s cleanup mission at the Moab Project, the Moab and Crescent Junction sites will transition to LM for long-term surveillance and maintenance. Hosting that office’s representatives for tours supported a smooth handoff between the two DOE offices.

In the first frame, Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project Federal Cleanup Director Matt Udovitsch, far right, explains the rail haul process for radioactive contaminants to student interns from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management at the Moab Project’s Crescent Junction site rail bench. In the second frame, Environmental Manager Liz Moran, far right, discusses the Moab Project’s Groundwater Interim Action System on the riverbank overlooking the Colorado River at the Moab site.

The interns learned about the Moab site’s history, including decades of uranium ore processing and the resulting contamination, the milestone removal of the 16-million-ton tailings pile and efforts to address groundwater contamination beneath the site through the Groundwater Compliance Action Plan, which will outline a final remediation strategy selected to protect the waters of the nearby Colorado River.

Thirty miles to the north at the Crescent Junction site, interns viewed the disposal cell for contaminated materials from the former Moab site. They observed operations and saw rock stockpiles being staged for eventual construction of the cell’s permanent engineered cover, or cap, made of soil, rock and vegetation to draw moisture away from the materials below.

-Contributor: Barbara Michel