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MOAB, Utah (AP) -- The first million tons of uranium tailings have been taken away from a huge pile near Moab.
The U.S. Department of Energy says the milestone was reached this week as part of an ongoing project to remove 16 million tons of radioactive waste from the shores of the Colorado River.
The waste is being loaded on trains and shipped to a disposal site 30 miles to the north.
The Energy Department is overseeing the work. Crews began loading railroad cars in April and hauling the waste to a series of cells at Crescent Junction designed for long-term storage for hazardous waste.
The project is expected to cost around $1 billion.
The waste is part of a Cold War legacy in Moab, where rich uranium deposits were mined during the 1950s for nuclear weapons. The mill closed in 1984.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
