Broomfield – Department of Energy officials plan to send samples of water collected at Rocky Flats to a laboratory in New Mexico to determine if elevated levels of uranium in the samples come from weapons production or naturally occurring.
Testing at Los Alamos National Laboratory will pinpoint the isotope, or the exact atomic element, in the samples from the site where plutonium bomb triggers were made from the 1950s until 1989.
The levels exceed the limits set by the Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement.
Scott Surovchak, Rocky Flats site manager for DOEs Office of Legacy Management, said decreased runoff, dropping from hundreds of gallons per minute during production to about a gallon a minute now, could be why levels are elevated.
There are 19 surface-water monitors and 126 wells sampling groundwater, with the majority in the 1,313-acre zone in the center of the property that includes the former plant’s 380-acre industrial zone.
Rocky Flats, about 10 miles northwest of Denver, was shut down after the FBI raided offices there for evidence of alleged environmental crimes. Plant operators eventually reached an $18.5 million plea deal with the government.
The meeting was the first update covering a full year since a $7 billion, decade-long cleanup effort was declared completed in October 2005. Much of the site’s 6,200 acres is to become a national wildlife refuge.
