Cool. I wonder if I can catch one of these there?
Posted on 08/19/2003 12:24:24 PM PDT by RoughDobermann
GOLDEN, Colo. -- In a milestone for the $7 billion cleanup at Rocky Flats, crews have finished removing more than 12 tons of weapons-grade plutonium from the former nuclear weapons site, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Tuesday.
The 6,000-acre site (pictured, left) 15 miles northwest of Denver is slated to become a national wildlife refuge after the cleanup project ends in 2006.
"Rocky Flats helped the United States win the Cold War and it is no longer in the nuclear weapons business," Abraham said in a statement issued in Washington.
The removal of the plutonium from the site was finished 12 years ahead of schedule, Abraham said. The material will be shipped to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for conversion into fuel for nuclear reactors.
"It is the end of Rocky Flats' nuclear mission, and it brings us that much closer to the safe closure of Rocky Flats," said David Abelson, executive director of the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments.
Gene Schmitt, the Energy Department's site manager, said with the plutonium gone, some $2 million spent each month on security can be applied to cleanup work.
For 40 years, Rocky Flats manufactured plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. When it was shut down in 1989 for safety violations, more than 12 metric tons of the highly radioactive metal were left behind.
Shipments of plutonium to Savannah River began last summer in tractor-trailers guarded by armed federal agents under secret schedules. Former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges lost a federal court fight to block the waste and was rebuked by a federal judge when he tried to ban the shipments.
The Energy Department plans to spend $4 billion on a facility that would convert 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power plants as part of a disarmament treaty with Russia.
Rocky Flats still has lower-grade waste, such as contaminated equipment, that will be transported to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
Cool. I wonder if I can catch one of these there?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.