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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The first rail cars hauling uranium tailings away from a huge pile near Moab could move sometime in April.
Don Metzler, the project's director for the federal Department of Energy, says work is about a month ahead of schedule to begin rail shipments. Managers are hoping to ship the first load April 20, but Metzler says that date is only a target at this point and not firm.
The 16 million tons of tailings are being taken to Crescent Junction as part of a $1 billion project to deal with the waste. The tailings are leftovers from a former uranium milling facility about three miles northwest of Moab.
Metzler says about 120 people are working six days a week to complete preparations for the project, including rail spurs and roads for hauling the waste from the pile to the rails.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
