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“A DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NUCLEAR WEAPONS FACILITY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E578-E579 on April 13, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
A DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NUCLEAR WEAPONS FACILITY
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HON. JOEL HEFLEY
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Thursday, April 13, 2000
Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I share with you an update on the first-ever scheduled closure of a Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facility. In less than seven years, residents along the Front Range of Colorado will no longer live in the shadow of Rocky Flats, a 6,500 acre former weapons component manufacturing facility. What once was home to more than 100 tons of plutonium and plutonium byproducts will become history. More than 700 structures representing 3.5 million square feet will be demolished. The two on-site landfills that contributed to soil and groundwater contamination will no longer exist.
Since the early years of the Nuclear Age to the end of the Cold War, Rocky Flats, a mere 16 miles northwest of Denver, was a manufacturing site for plutonium triggers and other nuclear weapons parts. In 1989, the FBI and the EPA closed the site due to alleged violations of environmental law.
A joint company headquartered in my district has developed a fast-
track closure plan, which DOE fully supports, that shaves decades off the original clean-up schedule. Originally expected to take 65 years and cost more than $35 billion, the accelerated closure plan will be completed by 2007 for under $8 billion.
To date great progress has been made at Rocky Flats such as cleaning up the majority of the top 10 environmental risk areas, including the removal of 30 tons of depleted uranium. Thousands of liters of plutonium and uranium solutions have been drained from dozens of tanks and stabilized. Most recently, the weapons research and development facility was decontaminated and demolished--six months ahead of schedule.
Within this decade, all nuclear materials and radioactive waste will be shipped to off-site storage facilities. Environmental remediation will be completed so that land is available for open space and industrial use and downstream water supplies are protected. Moreover, billions of taxpayer dollars that have been used in the operations, security and cleanup of Rocky Flats can be reallocated to similar sites throughout the country.
Imagine, after more than 50 years as a top-secret nuclear weapons facility that contributed to winning the Cold War, the Rocky Flats acreage will once again be available to the people of Colorado. Please join me in congratulating the DOE, the State of Colorado, and the companies involved for this extraordinary effort.
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