So, stopped to see how things were looking at the UMTRA site. I've posted about it before, a few years back.
But the short story is... Moab, Utah was a major area for uranium mining in the 50s through much of the Cold War era. There were uranium mines all over the place out here and this site, sitting directly on the bank of the Colorado River (a river that provides drinking water to nearly 30 million people downstream), was where the uranium ore was processed.
The mill ceased operations in the 80s. And when the company that owned it folded in the 90s, the structures were just demolished and buried on the property.
They left behind 16 million tons of radioactive mining tailings (tailings are the materials left over after processing minerals) on the site.
The cleanup became a federal Superfund project. Work began (at taxpayer expense, since the company who made this mess had long gone out of business) about 15 years ago removing the radioactive contamination.
And they're making progress on it. Sounds like they've got about 93% of the tailings removed (ie: relocated to the new holding site in Green River).
I was curious, though, so I whipped out the geiger counter and approached the fence.
Not a huge number, but definitely more than the background level readings taken farther from the site.
Worth noting, that my hotel is just across the river from this and the readings there are minimal, pretty normal levels. But still... probably want to heed the warning signs and not go playing in the dirt down there on the actual site.
