On Jan. 7, a train hauled 136 containers of uranium tailings away from the old Atlas mill site along the Colorado River just north of Moab, Utah — the biggest load since the colossal cleanup effort began last May. Twice a day, locomotives chug off from a siding near the 439-acre site (130 acres of which are covered with tailings), a Cold War relic that threatens to contaminate the river. Congress has set a 2019 deadline for the site’s remediation, but it might take up to 20 years to move all the hazardous red dirt, which emits low levels of radiation, to a repository site in Crescent Junction, 30 miles away.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline One long haul.
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