May 19

The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to spend about $144 million cleaning up the inactive High Flux Beam Reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.

The Energy Department reached an agreement with the U.S. EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on a final cleanup remedy. The Record of Decision outlines near-term and long-term actions, including removal and disposal of the remaining reactor structures, systems and components.

The reactor was a research project operated at the Brookhaven National Laboratory between 1965 and 1996. In 1996, the Energy Department discovered tritium in groundwater south of reactor apparently because of a leak in the pool where workers stored spent reactor fuel. The Energy Department suspended operations and in 1999 announced it was permanently closing the reactor.

As a result of past operations, the reactor complex contained approximately 65,000 curies of radioactive material.

Details of the cleanup agreement are available online at www.bnl.gov/hfbr.

Contact Waste & Recycling News senior reporter Bruce Geiselman at 330-865-6172 or bgeiselman@crain.com

w w w . w a s t e r e c y c l i n g n e w s . c o m

copyright 2009 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.