Yankee Rowe cleanup work to be done by fall

[struggle4progress]

By Karen Gardner
North Adams Transcript

CHARLEMONT -- <snip>

Until the storage canisters and the spent fuel inside them are removed from the site and sent to Yucca Mountain in Nevada -- which may not happen for another 15 years -- Yankee Atomic will continue to own the land, but will lease most of it to the town of Rowe for open space and recreation use. <snip>

Soil and ground water will be continually tested as workers continue their demolition work, he said. Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, is the only contaminant found on the site. However, PCBs in the soil will have the biggest impact on the clean up.

Lynch said that if necessary workers will conduct on-site processing using very high temperatures to remove the PCBs from the soil. The resulting waste then would be discarded. <snip>

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