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US: Nuke site cleanup efforts paying off for Idaho aquifer
Keith Ridler, Associated Press
Updated 5:01 pm, Thursday, April 13, 2017
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A giant aquifer below an eastern Idaho federal nuclear facility is as free of radioactive contamination and other pollutants as it has been in more than six decades of monitoring but the water level of the aquifer is at its lowest ever recorded, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report released this week.
Better environmental practices and cleanup work at the 890-square-mile (2,305-square-kilometer) U.S. Department of Energy site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory is paying off, said United States Geological Survey scientist Roy Bartholomay.
"Overall the aquifer is better quality than it has been at the Idaho National Lab," Bartholomay said. "There are just some anomalies out there we want to keep an eye on."
The federal site built in high-desert sagebrush steppe opened in 1949 and includes various components. Among them is a U.S. Navy site that handles fuel waste from the nation's fleet of nuclear-powered warships and the Idaho National Laboratory, considered the nation's leading nuclear research lab.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Nuclear-site-cleanup-efforts-paying-off-for-E-11070953.php