Long-Term Stewardship of DOE Legacy Waste Sites A Status Report (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix E: The Committee's Observations at Mound and Fernald
Appendix E: The Committee's Observations at Mound and Fernald
Pages 57-63
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From page 57... ...
Located near Dayton, Ohio, in the city of Miamisburg, the Mound Plant (now the Miamisburg Environmental Management Project, MEMP) manufactured radioactive components for nuclear weapons, such as neutron generators, and provided a variety of services to the Atomic Energy Commission and DOE using radioactive and stable isotopes.
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From page 58... ...
5DoE's Office of Oversight, Environment, Safety, and Health stated that "to promote commercialization, which was authorized by Congress and strongly supported by DOE Headquarters, the DOE Ohio Field Office authorized leasing of MEMP facilities before clearly identifying hazards and controls, fully assessing the potential impact of accidental releases of radioactivity on lessees, or developing an effective emergency management program involving lessees." Quoted in (DOE 2001 b)
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From page 59... ...
, and means to prevent future occupants from pumping contaminated ground water downstream from one of several onsite landfills that contain raclio~ogical and chemical contaminants.7 Drinking and process water are now drawn from three wells that are not currently contaminated (contaminant levels are on the order of one percent of maximum contaminant {gads, MEMP 2001) , and that sit directly downstream from the pump-and-treat wells that are being used to remediate contaminated ground water at the site; the persistence of the contaminants in the water is poorly understood.
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From page 60... ...
The facility hosted a uranium refinery and foundry that producecl high-purity uranium metal for the nuclear weapons complex. At its peak, the facility employed 3000 people; at the time of the committee meeting, FEMP had a workforce of 2500 (including subcontractors)
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From page 61... ...
Cleanup levels at Fernald were established through CERCLA RODs: aroundwater cleanup levels are based on U.~. tHA drinking water standards using maximum contaminant ~oacis, and soil cleanup levels based on risks for people on undeveloped parkland onsite (1o-6)
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From page 62... ...
, was organized when people living next to the Feed Materials plant discovered that their water and land were contaminatecl, but that DOE had never clisclosed the hazards. FRESH sued DOE in 1984 over environmental contamination, launching the process that has become the site cleanup.
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From page 63... ...
Fernald's work with outside experts and research programs might be a factor in (or possibly a result oft the higher quality of its technical work and its awareness of issues beyond cleanup and engineering.
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