National experts assembled for $500 million Parks nuke dump cleanup

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it has assembled a national team of experts for the cleanup of the nuclear dump in Parks Township.

The Corps made the announcement during a virtual public meeting Thursday.

The Corps is working on a more than $500 million project to dig up and dispose of buried nuclear waste at the 44-acre dump off Route 66. It is formally known as the Shallow Land Disposal Area.

Radioactive and chemical waste was buried in 10 trenches, totaling 33,000 cubic yards, from the defunct Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) in Apollo and Parks Township from about 1960 to the early 1970s.

NUMEC and its successors, Atlantic Richfield Co. and BWX Technologies, produced nuclear fuels for Navy submarines and commercial nuclear power plants and other products.

Site cleanup plans have been in the works for more than 30 years. The Corps took over the cleanup of the site in 2002.

The agency plans to start digging in November 2024 with excavation ending about 2031. It will then take another four years to close out the project and turn the site over to the owner, BWX Technologies, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for decommissioning.

Col. Adam J. Czekanski, commander of the Corps’ Pittsburgh District, said “the primary goal is to safeguard all people in the project, the surrounding communities and the environment.”

The other goals are transparency and community involvement.

About the assembled experts

“This seems like it is taking a long time, but it’s not that long,” said Tim Herald, the Corps’ project manager. The Corps is taking the time to assemble a national team, with some international consultants, to design the cleanup process and work on plans, he said.

The Pittsburgh District is working with the Corps’ Buffalo (N.Y.) District, which is well-versed in nuclear cleanups, as well as U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories Argonne, Oak Ridge and Los Alamos. Other agencies involved include the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The primary contractor is Jacobs Technology of Tullahoma, Tenn. It brought in eight subcontractors from across the nation with some support from Europe.

“They are the experts, keeping the cleanup safe,” Herald said. “This team will do it.”

Tests: air, groundwater OK offsite

The Corps has been testing the groundwater and air at the site.

Monitoring wells show no migration of nuclear contaminants from the site. Air sampling meets federal and state standards. The groundwater shows levels of radiological material below federal and state safe drinking water standards, said Bill Frederick, a hydrogeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Buffalo.

The Corps’ safety plans aim to prevent exposure of radioactive materials to site workers and the community during excavation.

In 2011, the Corps abruptly shut down excavation shortly after it began. Its contractor dug up more complex nuclear materials than the contractor or the cleanup plans were prepared to handle.

The risk of radiological contamination to the public will be low during excavation, according to the Corps. Precautions include air and water monitoring, wetting work surfaces to keep the dust down, a slow pace for excavation and containing stormwater and groundwater that come into contact with exposed trench surfaces.

During Thursday’s virtual meeting, an anonymous audience member asked the Corps if anyone could get sick due to exposure to the nuclear materials during the cleanup.

“I don’t expect anyone to get sick,” Herald said. The Corps and its contractors will have procedures in place and workers will be trained on-site.

The Corps will continue to update the public on its plans and will meet with residents to provide details on the excavation of the site.

Information about the project is published on the the Corps’ Pittsburgh District website, lrp.usace.army.mil (search for “Shallow Land Disposal Area”).