Clean Up at Controversial Pit Completed At INL

Technicians from the Idaho based contractor wrapped up work last week on Pit 9 from the Radioactive Waste Management Complex located at the eastern Idaho research lab. The Post Register reports the achievement marks the end of a cleanup process that started in the 1990s. In the late 1960s, the federal government dumped thousands of barrels and boxes of radioactive and hazardous waste in Pit 9, then workers covered it with soil. Decades later, the pit's original cleanup contractor proposed removing the material for $179 million. But the government denied it, then later contracted to have it cleaned up much cheaper.