Nuclear safety and health

This paper reports on the Rocky Flats Plant, a key facility for plutonium production, that has been plagued with environmental problems. One of the highest priority cleanups has involved Rocky Flats' solar evaporation ponds, which were used to store and evaporate low-level radioactive and hazardous liquid waste. Because the ponds are suspected of leaking and contaminating ground water, DOE has been removing the sludge from the bottom of the ponds, mixing it with concrete, casting the mixture into large blocks, and removing the blocks for disposal elsewhere. DOE puts total cleanup costs at more than $100 million. However, significant problems have slowed the removal of the waste from the ponds and completion of the project. Soon after the project began, DOE discovered that the waste from the pond actually contained low concentrations of hazardous rather than low-level waste. Further, because the contractor improperly mixed the concrete and the sludge, the resulting blocks began to break apart. The Rocky Flats contractor has tried to correct these problems, and DOE has begun to improve program control, including the development of a detailed program plan. However, substantial work on the solar ponds remains, including remixing and repackaging more than 8,000 blocks. In addition, DOE estimates that up to 20,000 more blocks may be produced during the cleanup