Site of the Rocky Flats plant in Colorado to become Wildlife Refuge after 10 year clean up program
Two Laboratory scientists helped author an article about the scientific understanding that helped the U.S. government clean up waste at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production complex years ahead of schedule saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
In the September issue of Physcis Today, Los Alamos scientists David L. Clark of Stockpile Management and Support (ADSMS) and David R. Janecky of Ecology and Air Quality (ENV-EAQ), together with Leonard J. Lane of L.J. Lane Consulting in Tucson, Arizona, wrote about the chemical and physical interactions of radioactive compounds, how these interact with the environment, and how best to manage them.
The authors detailed how good science clarified the scope of the most extensive cleanup in the history of Superfund legislation.
Rocky Flats was a U.S. Department of Energy site located about 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver. From 1952 to 1989, the Rocky Flats Plant made components for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal using various radioactive and hazardous materials, including plutonium, uranium, and various cleaning solvents and degreasers. Closed in 1993, after nearly 40 years of nuclear weapons production work, the plant left a legacy of contaminated facilities, soils, and water.
Rocky Flats is now a wildlife refuge scheduled to partially open in 2007, and expected to be in full operation in 2012. The refuge will have hiking trails, interpretive signs, and limited hunting.
The entire article can be viewed at http://www.aip.org/pt/ online.
To read a news release, click here.
More information about the Rocky Flats cleanup can be found in the latest issue of Actinide Research Quarterly at http://arq.lanl.gov online.
