The Associated Press and Tribune Review reported Monday the cost for cleaning up a nuclear waste site in Western Pennsylvania known as the Parks Township Shallow Land Disposal Area has jumped from $44 million to more than $350 million.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say the project will take more than 10 years to remove all the hazardous waste from the site in Parks Township, Armstrong County which includes highly radioactive materials like uranium and plutonium.

Radioactive waste disposal operations were conducted between 1960 and 1970 at the site. Low-level nuclear wastes from the nearby decommissioned Apollo operation site were disposed of in a series of ten trenches comprising a total area of approximately 1.2 acres at the disposal site placed over an area of 44 acres.

As part of work done under Atomic Energy Commission contracts, low-level radioactive materials were produced, primarily for fuel for nuclear powered submarines and power plants.

Disposal operations were conducted by the firm NUMEC, Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation, in the early 1960s. In 1967, ARCO purchased stock in NUMEC. In 1971, ARCO sold the stock of NUMEC to Babcock & Wilcox which has changed to BWX Technologies. BWX Technologies is the current owner of the Parks Township Shallow Land Disposal Area.

For more information, visit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Parks Township Shallow Land Disposal Area webpage.

NewsClips:

Army Corps: Nuke Cleanup Now $350 Million Up From $44 Million

Parks Township Nuke Dump Cleanup: 10 Years, $412 Million

Clean Up At PA Nuclear Waste Site To Cost $350M

1/12/2015