page_title: Pondcrete
hierarchical_section_title: Pondcrete
caption_attribution_description: Rocky Flats Plant. Aerial view of the Rocky Flats Plant from directly overhead in 1954. In 1950, Dow Chemical Company was chosen by the Atomic Energy Commission to establish the Rocky Flats Plant as an atomic bomb trigger fabrication facility. The criteria for siting such a plant included a location west of the Mississippi, north of Texas, south of the northern border of Colorado, and east of Utah; a dry moderate climate; a supporting population of at least 25,000 people; and accessibility from Los Alamos, NM, Chicago, IL, and St. Louis, MO. Twenty-one areas in the United States were suggested; seven locations were screened in the Denver area. This four-square mile area was selected and construction began in 1951.
context_page_description: Pondcrete is a mixture of cement and sludge. Its role is to immobilize hazardous waste and, in some cases, low-level and mixed-level radioactive waste, in the form of solid material. The material was used by the United States Department of Energy and its contractor, Rockwell International, in an attempt to handle the radioactive waste from contaminated ponds in the Rocky Flats Plant for burial in Nevada desert. Portland cement is mixed with sludge to solidify into “pondcrete” blocks and placed into large, plastic lined boxes. The sludge is taken from solar evaporation ponds which are used to remove moisture from waste materials, therefore reducing their weight. To do this, liquid waste is poured into artificial, shallow ponds. The waste is heated by solar radiation and any moisture is evaporated, leaving behind the waste. These ponds contained low level radioactive process waste as well as sanitary sewage sludge and wastes, which categorize them and the Pondcrete as a mixed waste.
context_section_description: Pondcrete is a mixture of cement and sludge.  Its role is to immobilize hazardous waste and, in some cases, low-level and mixed-level radioactive waste, in the form of solid material.  The material was used by the United States Department of Energy and its contractor, Rockwell International, in an attempt to handle the radioactive waste from contaminated ponds in the Rocky Flats Plant for burial in Nevada desert. Portland cement is mixed with sludge to solidify into “pondcrete” blocks and placed into large, plastic lined boxes.  The sludge is taken from solar evaporation ponds which are used to remove moisture from waste materials, therefore reducing their weight.  To do this, liquid waste is poured into artificial, shallow ponds.  The waste is heated by solar radiation and any moisture is evaporated, leaving behind the waste.  These ponds contained low level radioactive process waste as well as sanitary sewage sludge and wastes, which categorize them and the Pondcrete as a mixed waste.
caption: Rocky Flats Plant - Aerial View 002
exif: {}