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PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- The cost of cleaning up radioactive and hazardous
waste
at a former uranium-processing plant in southern Ohio could top $4.5
billion.

There's also evidence that contamination has migrated off the site.

That's according to the Dayton Daily News.

The newspaper says the government has spent one billion dollars on
clean-up
so far.

Officials with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency say the Piketon
plant's environmental record has improved.

But in recent years the US Energy Department has found small amounts of
radioactive contamination outside the plant.

The department told the newspaper that none of the amounts are large
enough
to pose a health threat.



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Expanded A.P. Story, Updated: 11/12/2006 5:51:53 PM

PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- Cleaning up radioactive and hazardous waste at a
former
uranium-processing plant may top $4.5 billion, and there is evidence
that
contamination has migrated off the 3,714-acre site, the Dayton Daily
News
reported Sunday.

The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which once enriched uranium for
weapons and nuclear fuel, closed in 2001.

The newspaper said the government has spent $1 billion so far digging
up
soil, emptying ponds, capping unlined toxic landfills, treating
groundwater and
hauling contaminants away -- more than 43,000 containers of hazardous,
radioactive and other waste and 8,400 tons of radioactive scrap metal.

Officials with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency say the worst
of the
plant's contamination is confined to the federal land, in part because
thick
bedrock slows the spread of groundwater.

They also say the plant's environmental record improved in recent years
as
plant operators adopted modern waste-handling practices and began
following
rules governing discharges to air and waterways.

Still, there is evidence of offsite contamination. According to its
most
recent environmental reports, the U.S. Energy Department in 2003 and
2004 found
small amounts of radioactive contamination outside the southern Ohio
plant.

Tests on two area deer killed by cars showed traces of uranium isotopes
in
the livers of both and in the muscle of one.

Traces of uranium were also found in milk and egg samples from area
farms,
and in three vegetables taken from the gardens of plant neighbors.

Air, water and sediment tests also revealed small amounts of
radioactive
uranium, plutonium or technetium, and three fish from area waterways
had traces of
uranium or plutonium.

The U.S. Department of Energy told the newspaper that none of the
amounts are
large enough to pose a health threat.

Messages seeking comment were left for the Energy Department by The
Associated Press.

The cleanup hasn't ended disputes between the Energy Department and the
Ohio
EPA.

Most recently, the Energy Department pushed for a reduced groundwater
cleanup
standard, arguing that the lesser standard is appropriate because no
one
drinks the water underneath the plant site, according to memos obtained
by the
Daily News.

"We represent the taxpayers. Our goal here is to make sure we are doing
cost-effective, smart cleanup," William Murphie, manager of the Energy
Department
office overseeing cleanup, told the newspaper.

Some of the most dangerous cleanup work is being done inside three
massive
enrichment buildings, where workers are removing uranium deposits that
cling to
surfaces inside equipment and 600 miles of piping.

They must use extreme care because mishandling the radioactive deposits
could
cause a small nuclear reaction a "criticality" that could kill workers
and
spread radiation through the area.

Murphie said nothing like that has happened.

"We've never had a criticality event, and I have no reason to believe
that we
ever will have a criticality event," he said.

In 2000, the Energy Department launched an investigation that
identified
hundreds of accidental releases of uranium gas or toxic fluorine at the
plant
since the 1950s and concluded there was a failure to properly monitor
emissions or
workers' exposure to radiation.

"We take a lot of lumps for the past processes and, face it, mistakes
that
were made," Murphie said. "We've learned from the past. We're all
smarter than
we were in the past."

Murphie said the department remains committed to the cleanup and trying
new
solutions if those now in place don't work.

"DOE is very proud of the cleanup program here," he said. "We believe
we have
accomplished a lot."