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GAO report describes cleanup progress at Moab Mill Site
A new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office states that the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) has disposed of more than 16 million tons of radioactive and hazardous waste from the Moab Mill Site. While cleanup continues at the Cold War–era uranium ore processing site in southeastern Utah, a plan for the next phase of groundwater remediation is still needed, according to the GAO.
R. C. Erdmann, E. C. Gritton, M. J. Ozeroff
Nuclear Technology | Volume 22 | Number 2 | May 1974 | Pages 229-236
Technical Paper | Ocean—Nuclear Energy | doi.org/10.13182/NT74-A31405
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of this study show that lightweight radioisotope heat sources can be considered for use undersea with little shielding necessary for electronics packages in close proximity to the heat source. Acceptable integrated electronic dose levels of 107 rad for gamma irradiation and 104 rep for neutron bombardment were obtained for extended mission times for the three isotopes considered. It is unnecessary to shield the isotope 210Po for electronic protection. However, use would be restricted because of its short half-life and this isotope could present special heat management problems not encountered with either 60Co or 244Cm. For 244Cm and 60Co it was found that the shield around the electronics package becomes important due to the strong back scattering effect of neutrons and gammas from the surrounding seawater. The 244Cm heat source appears to require less shielding to electronics level and would therefore take up less volume in the undersea system than the 60 Co heat source. Recovery of an isotope-powered undersea electronics package must be done remotely. It will be necessary to provide shielding to protect personnel engaged in the retrieval of the package (and also in the initial launching) and this vehicle cask will also have to provide for auxiliary cooling of the radioisotope heating source.