This is not a classic contract. If you provide more flexibility to move around and adjust, we feel that will provide some relief of the concerns you've raised in that area. Matt McCormick and Lisa O'Mary, with DOE-RFFO, met with Board members to give an update on the site's progress in treating and shipping waste and nuclear materials offsite. Rocky Flats began shipping certain plutonium metals to Los Alamos in New Mexico in July, and will initiate shipments of plutonium metals and oxides to Savannah River, South Carolina in January 2000. All plutonium is scheduled to be gone from Rocky Flats by 2002.
Residues are wastes that contain higher levels of plutonium than other categories of waste.
The site has continued shipments of low-level radioactive waste to the Nevada Test Site for disposal. Low-level waste that also contains hazardous materials continues to be shipped to the privately owned Envirocare disposal facility in Utah. Since this time, Rocky Flats has been slowly increasing its rate of shipment to the new facility. In October, the State of New Mexico issued the permit required for WIPP to begin accepting mixed transuranic waste. Rocky Flats will discontinue its regular shipments to WIPP at the end of November while it gets ready to ship mixed TRU waste under the new permit.