The long stretch of cold weather that plagued Grand County caused a surprising problem with tailings shipments from the Atlas mill site.

Latches on the end-gates of tailings shipping containers failed to securely fasten three times in two weeks. The third incident actually spilled some tailings onto the railroad tracks at the Crescent Junction repository site, said Lee Shenton, Grand County’s liaison to the project.

“It wasn’t a risk to the public,” Shenton said.

The indicator light inside the truck carrying the container between the railroad and the repository showed that the end-gate was securely fastened when it was not, said DOE spokeswoman Wendee Ryan.

Three switches located on the truck under the containers were being frozen when workers sprayed the end-gates with a water solution to remove possible contamination after the containers were emptied, Shenton said.

The fix was “extremely simple,” Shenton said. Antifreeze is now being added to the cleaning solution so that it does not freeze and corrupt the switches.