It is stored in cylinders at the plant. A process that converts natural uranium into enriched uranium, which can be used either in weapons or as fuel for nuclear power plants. A combination of hazardous and radioactive waste. Eleven elements, all radioactive and not naturally occurring, with atomic numbers greater than 92. They are neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium and lawrencium.
Critics say too much time has been lost, allowing contaminants to spread.
We may have tried too hard to know too much when we got started. Kentucky delegation in Congress, the Clinton administration has begun funneling more money to Paducah with the aim of achieving noticeable cleanup at a site that has been sickening workers and contaminating the soil, water, air, animals and plants for almost five decades. The first visible result of that increased spending is the start of the removal of Drum Mountain, a vast, 8,000-ton pile of crushed and contaminated barrels. The work began Friday. But congressional investigators and Kentucky officials say still more money is needed to meet the 2010 deadline.