The first injury causing accident in six years happened at the Atlas tailings site at 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 29. A worker employed by Envirocon suffered breaks of both tibia and fibula in one leg when a roll of plastic sheeting fell on him, according to Department of Energy spokesperson Wendee Ryan.

The employee was immediately taken to Allen Memorial Hospital by ambulance, Ryan said.

The accident happened in the contaminated area, the "dirty side", of the site where Envirocon, a "teaming partner" (sub-contractor) with EnergySolutions is responsible for excavating the tailings and conditioning them for shipment to the repository at Crescent Junction, Ryan said.

The employee was not negligent and there was no need to shut down operations. But the practice of lining the shipping containers with plastic has been suspended, Ryan said.

"The 600 pound roll came out of the bracket," Ryan said. An investigation is now underway to determine the cause. Coincidentally, investigators from EnergySolutions corporate headquarters are in Utah helping investigate the cause of the truck accident that happened two weeks ago, Ryan said.

The accident was immediately reported to Lee Shenton, the newly hired Grand County liaison to the project, a position funded by a grant from DOE. Following county protocol he then notified the county engineer, the chair of the county council, and the council administrator who sent an email to all council members, Shenton said.

The plastic sheeting is used to line the 40 ton shipping containers to ensure that all tailings are released when the containers are dumped into the permanent storage cell. Immediately following this accident EnergySolutions ordered Envirocon to cease that practice and revert to lining the containers with oil, Ryan said.

The goal is avoid the unnecessary cost of bringing containers back with the weight of tailings stuck inside them. That increases both the time needed to remove the tailings and the cost, Shenton said.

Permanent liners are being installed in new shipping containers soon to be delivered to the site, Ryan said.

Ryan extended sympathies to the worker and his family and behalf of DOE and project contractors.