Government says Fernald Ohio waste shipments to Nevada can resume in June

Tuesday, April 14, 1998 | 2:27 a.m.

The department's Fernald field office and its cleanup contractor are still choosing a modified design of the waste containers, said John Sattler, leader of Fernald's waste management team.

A container leaked Dec. 15 near Kingman, Ariz. No one was injured, and no evacuations were required.

Sattler said he could not predict exactly when the truck shipments will resume because the department and its Nevada test site, where the wastes are sent for permanent disposal, must approve the plan.

"We have done a lot of work. We have made a lot of progress," Sattler said.

The Fernald operation is under pressure from resident neighbors to resume the shipments and reduce the amount of waste at the site 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati. The department also must reassure Nevada politicians and residents made nervous by the December leak.

Fernald officials are working to determine why the metal container - which is larger than a refrigerator - failed, whether additional protection should be provided during waste shipping and ways to improve safety monitoring, Sattler said.

Members of Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health want the shipments resumed as soon as possible, spokeswoman Edwa Yocum said Tuesday. They are worried that the Nevada test site might not accept any more waste from the 1,050-acre Fernald site.

"Then we would be stuck with the waste here on site," Mrs. Yocum said.

Some of Fernald's wastes are to be buried on site but the bulk is to be disposed of elsewhere.

All of Fernald's waste shipments to Nevada have been halted since December. That includes construction rubble, uranium materials from processing operations halted when Fernald ceased operation in 1989, and radioactive material from filtered wastewater. Small volumes of waste have been sent to other disposal sites.

Through the end of March, Fernald had been scheduled to ship out 161,000 cubic feet of waste. But only 12,000 cubic feet have been shipped so far, Sattler said.

In a Feb. 6 report, the Energy Department blamed faulty containers and inadequate supervision for the December leak. Officials said water was discovered leaking from two of seven metal containers being transported in a tractor-trailer truck.

The leaking boxes carried solid waste - earth and chalk-like silica that contained trace amounts of uranium - but were found to be leaking water that formed in the wastes.

Investigators concluded that the water seeped through container cracks that developed during handling at Fernald, then opened because of vibrations on the road.