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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department has allocated $108 million in economic stimulus aid for removal and cleanup of the 16 million-ton radioactive tailings pile on the Colorado River near Moab, Utah.
Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson said Tuesday the money is good news because it shows the Energy Department is trying to meet a 2019 cleanup deadline.
The money will help remove an extra 2 million tons of tailings by 2011 -- the end of the current five-year removal contract. That will be accomplished by adding more rail cars and more rail shipments from the former Atlas Mineral Corporation site near Moab to a disposal cell in Crescent Junction 33 miles away.
Shipments are set to begin in April.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
