U.S. to Spend $1 Billion to Clean Up Plant

The Energy Department has agreed to spend more than $1 billion to clean up toxic and radioactive contamination at its nuclear weapons facility at Fernald, Ohio, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.

The EPA said it has signed a proposed consent agreement with the Energy Department that requires four specific cleanup actions to be carried out at the Feed Materials Production Center, all under the EPA’s supervision.

The agency said that the consent agreement had been submitted to the Justice Department for final approval, which is expected within 15 days. The public then will have 30 days to comment on the cleanup.

EPA officials said the consent agreement outlines one of the biggest cleanup operations ever required under the federal Superfund toxic waste cleanup program.

The Fernald plant, a 1,050-acre facility near Cincinnati, has become heavily contaminated by toxic and radioactive wastes generated during several decades of operations involving the production of radioactive uranium metal for the government’s nuclear weapons program.

In addition to releasing tens of thousands of pounds of uranium dust into the environment during operations, Fernald was used as a storage site for other radioactive wastes that have leaked into ground water beneath the plant.

The plant, now operated by Westinghouse Co. for the Energy Department, was shut in the spring of 1989 because of operational and environmental problems.

Under the proposed consent agreement, the Energy Department agreed to:

--Remove contaminated ground water from under the plant site, an operation that is now under way, the EPA said.

--Stabilize structurally unsound tanks containing radioactive wastes.

--Collect contaminated rainwater runoff from the waste pit areas.

--Prevent the spread of contaminated ground water under a nearby stream called Paddy’s Run, which is off the plant site.

The administrator of the EPA would have the final say over all disputed issues. Cleanup plans are to be submitted on a staggered schedule running through March, 1992.