Uranium Leak Stops Shipments

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) _ Officials say some low-level, radioactive waste that leaked from containers shipped from a facility in Gore poses no public health hazard. <br/><br/>Sequoyah Fuels halted shipments

Friday, February 16th 2007, 6:28 am

By: News On 6

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) _ Officials say some low-level, radioactive waste that leaked from containers shipped from a facility in Gore poses no public health hazard.

Sequoyah Fuels halted shipments of depleted uranium after authorities in Nevada found some of the substance had seeped through a steel shipping container.

Officials say it will take another two weeks before removal of the 95,000 tons of radioactive waste remaining at the site can resume.

Sequoyah Fuels president John Ellis says the five containers still at the plant may have to be reopened, lined and resealed before being transported to a former atomic-bomb test site in Nevada, where the waste eventually will be buried.

About a million pounds of depleted uranium has been stored at Sequoyah Fuels since 1993, when the company abandoned its uranium-purification operations.

Ellis suspects the breach occurred because the drums have been exposed to the elements for the past 13 or 14 years.