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Moab Uranium Mill Tailing Remedial Action Project Celebrates Official Start of Mill Tailings Haul
May 4, 2009

The Moab, Utah Uranium Mill Tailing Remedial Action Project, a site supported by the EMCBC, on May 4, celebrated the official beginning of its mill tailings haul that will move 16.5 million tons of tailings away from Moab and the Colorado River, to a permanent engineered disposal cell in Crescent Junction, 30 miles away.

Ribbon cutting (from left): Steve Creamer, Mike Moore (Acting Director, EM Office of Small Sites Projects), Donald Metzler, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., Congresswoman Grace Napolitano of California, and Tony Amadeo (Vice President of the Midwest Division for S&K Aerospace, Inc.)
About 150 invited guests and employees attended the tailings haul event, which was held at the rail load out area at the Moab site. Several speakers, including Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr., gave remarks, which were followed by a ribbon-cutting and a demonstration of the massive gantry crane used to load and unload containers of tailings to and from railcars. Guests were served yellow cake and punch following the ceremony.
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. gives remarks at the Mill Tailings Haul Celebration held May 4, outside of Moab, Utah. Containers on railcars and a portion of the gantry cane are visible in the background.
The train now departs the Moab site once daily, Monday through Thursday. Trainloads will initially consist of 88 containers. With funding received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the project is evaluating options to maximize the volume of tailings shipped by the end of fiscal year 2011.

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