Army Corps to update public on $500M-plus nuke cleanup in Parks Township

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will update residents on the status of the $500 million-plus cleanup of the nuclear dump in Parks Township in a virtual meeting Thursday evening.

Excavation for the cleanup will start in 2024 at the 44-acre dump off Route 66. It is formally known as the Shallow Land Disposal Area.

The dump received radioactive and chemical waste from the defunct Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp., known as NUMEC, in Apollo and Parks Township from about 1960 to the early 1970s.

NUMEC and its successors, Atlantic Richfield Co. and BWX Technologies, produced nuclear fuels for Navy submarines and commercial nuclear power plants and other products.

Site cleanup plans have been in the works for more than 30 years.

After much planning, a change in government oversight and a halt in digging up the nuclear waste, the Corps is preparing to begin the estimated 10-year cleanup.

“We’re on schedule and on target,” said Tim Herald, the Corps’ project manager. “Safety is the priority. We plan to work slowly, deliberatively and methodically.”

The cleanup project is in the design phase. The primary contractor is Jacobs Technology Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn.

“They’re designing all the processes and procedures, determining the right equipment and site layout, checking on utilities to support operations and working on the details where the waste will be sent,” Herald said.

Residents can ask questions before the meeting by 3 p.m. Thursday by filling out a form on the Corps’ Pittsburgh District website, lrp.usace.army.mil (search for “Shallow Land Disposal Area”), where the meeting will also be broadcast. Also, the meeting can be heard over the phone by calling 844-800-2712, and entering the access code 2764-302-8785.