Uranium cleanup up in air

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Friday, Oct. 22, 1999 | 10:54 a.m.

Dames & Moore, an engineering firm with extensive experience in uranium recovery and hazardous waste reclamation, has declined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's offer to continue cleanup of a former Utah uranium milling operation near the Colorado River.

The uranium is seeping into the river, the drinking water source for more than 25 million people downstream, including Southern Nevada.

The company notified the NRC Wednesday that it could not clean up the Atlas Co. uranium mill tailings near Moab, Utah, due to a recent acquisition by another company.

After consulting with the state of Utah, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to approach other companies, an NRC spokeswoman said.

The uranium tailings piled up at Moab from 1956 to 1984. The facility had been owned by Atlas since 1962. Uranium is no longer processed at the site and the mill has been dismantled.