More than 30 people turned out last week for a public meeting with the Department of Energy to learn about details of moving the Atlas uranium mill tailings from the banks of the Colorado to a permanent repository near Crescent Junction.

Representatives from the DOE, its prime contractor EnergySolutions, and other contractors were in attendance to answer questions and discuss the next phase of the project. The contractors were not required to attend, said DOE Project Manager Don Metzler, but he said their presence was a sign of their commitment to the project and making sure it works for the community.

The best news, from Metzler’s standpoint, seemed to be the newfound willingness of Union Pacific Railroad to facilitate timely removal of the tailings. Metzler announced that trains will begin hauling the tailings in May, 2009.

The initial schedule will be based on completion of the project by 2028, he said, but all the infrastructure will be in place so that the pace can be accelerated in 2012 allowing for completion by 2019 if more funding can be obtained either by special appropriation from Congress or by DOE giving this project priority over others. “We will be ready for whatever Washington tells us,” Metzler said.

Metzler also discussed the rainstorms that washed huge boulders down onto the rail siding in 2006. “I started thinking maybe rail isn’t the way to go,” he said, adding that safety and other factors – cost and public opinion – trumped that thought. Referring to the well-attended public meeting in June during which many area residents expressed a preference for moving the tailings by rail rather than by truck, Metzler said it became clear to him that the community “overwhelmingly... liked rail.”

Activity at the site north of Moab is clearly visible, bolstering the schedule for beginning hauling that Metzler set forth last week. New rails and ballast gravel have already been brought to the railroad right-of-way. Buildings are under construction at the Atlas site, and 65 percent (1.2 million tons) of soil have been removed from the repository site.

“We’ve got people going everywhere,” said Brent Anderson of EnergySolutions.

The trains will consist of 22 flatbed rail cars, 89 feet long, that will be propelled by engines at both ends. This push-pull arrangement means that the train can be driven from either end and will not have to turn around, a big cost savings, DOE officials said. Each car will carry four specially made sealed containers, each holding 40 tons of tailings. The schedule will move 3,400 tons of tailings every day, meaning that a haul truck carrying one container from the site to the rail siding will cross the Potash Road every 3.5 to 4 minutes.

The train will depart Moab at 4 p.m. and return the next morning by 6 a.m. If the project completion is accelerated the train will expand to 34 cars in 2012, Metzler said.

Metzler said that safety is paramount, and Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management, James A. Rispoli, told him, “look at this project from a life cycle [point of view],” because one accident spoils everything, Metzler said.

Moab resident Ruth Dillon asked Metzler what would be the worst-case scenario. He said an accident at the Potash Road crossing. There is no money to build an overpass, he said, but there will be fully trained, drug-tested, flaggers at the crossing. The trucks that will haul the tailings from their current site to the train cars will be required to stop for anything on the road, he said.

Signs with international symbols will alert people to the danger. A run-a-way path will be built for the haul trucks to turn onto if their brakes should fail as they come down the hill. Gates will be locked to keep people off the haul road during off-hours. Trains will be limited to 10 mph as they near the rail siding.

EnergySolutions will install steel netting to keep boulders from falling onto the track. Even so, if a major storm threatens work will cease and every worker will be brought off the hill side, Metzler said.

“We know how to manage radon,” Metzler said, assuring area residents that all precautions will be taken to protect the community. The 40-ton containers, especially designed for this project, “are way better [more secure] than anything we’ve had before,” Metzler said. Monitors are in place. If an excursion should happen local elected officials will know about it the day it happens, he promised.

At a meeting with the Moab Tailings Project Committee last month Metzler and Moab Fire Chief Corky Brewer talked about a mock rescue drill that was executed successfully, except for a minor glitch when both emergency responders and hospital staff expressed concern of danger from radioactivity. Brewer said that EnergySolutions has begun an effort to explain to those people how precautions will ensure that neither they nor their facilities will be threatened by the low levels of radioactivity in the tailings.