Last of dangerous waste being shipped out today

The final 12 canisters if treated byproduct will be moved to Texas today.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The cleanup of a former uranium processing site from the Cold War era is reaching another milestone as workers prepare to ship the last load of the most dangerous radioactive waste remaining at the site.
"Now, we can really see the light at the end of the tunnel," said Lisa Crawford, president of the Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health, a nonprofit citizens group started by about 100 concerned families who lived near the Fernald plant. "This is the last of the really bad stuff."
Fernald, about 20 miles northwest of Cincinnati, processed and purified uranium for use in reactors to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons from the 1950s until 1989. The final 12 canisters of treated byproduct from the refining of uranium will be moved by trucks today to a storage site near Andrews, Texas.
Known to cause cancer
The raw ore stored in Silos 1 and 2 for more than 50 years posed one of the greatest sources of direct radiation to Fernald workers and was a concern to area residents, said Jeff Wagner, spokesman for Fluor Fernald, the contractor managing the cleanup for the Department of Energy.
The two silos held waste containing radium, which produces the radioactive gas radon, known to cause cancer. That waste was moved into steel tanks last year where it was treated by blending it with flyash and cement and sealed in 1/2-inch thick steel containers weighing about 20,000 pounds each. The removal and disposal of the waste is the last major hurdle in the $4.4 billion cleanup.
Waste from pits that mostly contained contaminated sludge from the ores and the contents of a third silo that held waste containing thorium -- a radioactive substance hazardous through inhalation to humans -- already has been shipped to an Envirocare site in Utah.
Fluor Fernald still has to complete demolition of the treatment complex and storage tank facilities and remove any remaining contaminated soil and rubble, but cleanup of the 1,050 acre-site should be completed in August.
Emotional year
"It's been emotional, but satisfying, as workers -- some of whom have been here for 20 years or more -- work themselves out of a job," Wagner said of the cleanup, which began in the 1980s even before the government stopped production.
Crawford, who has fought for the cleanup for nearly 23 years, said it has been an emotional year for everyone.
"Every milestone brings us closer to what will soon be a mission accomplished," said Crawford, whose group plans to meet one last time in November.
"Our goal was to get the site cleaned up, and we will have met that even if it took over two decades," she said.
Crawford said residents were angry and hurt when they started their struggle to ensure the safe cleanup of the site, but she believes everyone now has a good working relationship.
"We knew we'd never get total cleanup, but we think it's where folks can live with it."
Undeveloped park
Restoration plans for the site call for an undeveloped park with forests, open fields, floodplains and wetlands. The park is intended to be a wildlife haven and could include a center to teach visitors about the weapons work at the plant and the subsequent cleanup.
A new group -- the Fernald Community Alliance -- is forming to make sure that continued monitoring and treatment of water will be done and to keep watch over restoration efforts.
Crawford won't be leading that group, but plans to participate.
"I'll be around," she said. "Old activists never die."