Bids sought to finish Mound cleanup
New work came after claim that job was done
By Timothy R. Gaffney, Dayton Daily News Staff Writer
The Energy Department is seeking bids to clean up the last two contaminated parcels of the former Mound nuclear weapons plant in Miamisburg.
The cleanup involves the removal of a variety of buried wastes, including 2,500 empty, crushed drums contaminated with radioactive thorium, sand contaminated with radioactive polonium and a mix of other wastes contaminated with radioactive isotopes and non-radioactive chemicals.
In June, the Energy Department's Ohio Field Office and cleanup contractor CH2M Hill declared they had shipped the last truckload of radioactive contaminants from the 305-acre site.
On Monday, a spokeswoman for the agency's Cincinnati office said the June shipment was only the last truckload by that contractor.
The new work remains because the Energy Department didn't include it in the current cleanup contract. It had decided the wastes could remain safely buried, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had agreed.
Local officials opposed the plan, and U.S. Representatives David Hobson, R-Springfield, and Mike Turner, R-Centerville, got Congress to earmark $30 million to finish the job.
A local group is converting the site to commercial use as the Mound Advanced Technology Center.
The Energy Department's office of inspector general criticized the Mound cleanup project in March, saying it was more than a year behind schedule and $476 million over original estimates.
The cleanup work will be done under a task order to be issued to a small business from a pool of previously qualified companies.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/search/content/localnews/daily/073106moundweb.html
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