MOAB, Utah – The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project has had a safe, productive year.

   The project had no recordable injuries this year, and it has gone more than five years without a lost-time injury or illness — a record equating to 2.2 million work hours.

   This past March, when the project reached 2 million work hours without lost-time injury or illness, the project’s remedial action contractor, Portage, Inc., and technical assistance contractor, S&K Aerospace, LLC, hosted celebrations to commemorate the achievement. Site employees received American National Standards Institute-approved orange T-shirts to wear during the summer months. Banners highlighting the accomplishment were hung in visible locations around the project sites.

   S&K employees have not only contributed to this safety record, but they also have not had lost-time injury or illness since the original contract was awarded in June 2007.

   “The Moab project workforce has consistently demonstrated its commitment to safely completing our mission,” said Federal Project Director Donald Metzler.

   While working safely, employees prepared and shipped almost 847,000 tons of uranium mill tailings this year from the Moab site to the Crescent Junction disposal site, 30 miles to the north. That brings the total shipped to date to roughly 7.3 million, more than 45 percent of the total 16 million tons that need to be shipped for disposal. The tailings are the sandy clay process waste material from uranium mining.

The cover on the disposal cell consists of multiple layers of soil and rock. Interim cover has been placed on the portions of the cell that have met the final grade for tailings material. In September, an additional 28,000 cubic yards of interim cover was placed. Final cover layers are placed over the interim cover and in October an additional 165,600 cubic yards were installed.

   The site is located about three miles northwest of the city of Moab in Grand County. The former millsite encompasses approximately 480 acres. About 130 acres is covered by the tailings pile.