By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

CROSBY TWP. - Because of a legal dispute over where to dispose of radioactive waste from the Fernald nuclear cleanup, taxpayers are spending about $9,000 a day for crews at the long-closed nuclear weapons plant to not perform the work.

Since work was halted seven days ago, the wasted money has added up to more than $63,000, and there's no clear sign of when work will resume.

Crews must remain ready to begin the operation of sucking the powdery waste out of Silo 3, pouring it in storage sacks and packaging those sacks in steel shipping crates. That requires constant checking and maintenance of the systems, along with routine testing of the operators, using fly ash as a practice material.

But the workers cannot actually start the job because Nevada state officials are trying to prevent the Department of Energy from burying the waste in the Nevada desert. State officials there have threatened a federal lawsuit, saying the plan is illegal and unsafe.

That leaves about 60 chemical operators, maintenance personnel and supervisors committed to the project with little else to do but practice and wait.

Energy officials told the workers July 26 to stay on standby but not to begin removing the waste until the legal dispute is resolved. It is unclear how long it will take.

Officials in the Nevada Attorney General's Office said last week that there have been no substantive talks and the two sides are no closer to a remedy than they were in April, when Nevada first made its legal threat.

"We've had one phone conversation with the Department of Energy's legal council," said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects in the governor's office. "They basically said they could 'get around' everything. They can't answer the legal questions we've raised satisfactorily."

Department of Energy officials refused to comment on the situation.

Meanwhile, preparations are being made to begin removing and disposing even more highly radioactive waste in two other storage tanks, called Silos 1 and 2. The transfer of that waste from the silos to temporary holding tanks, where it will be mixed with concrete and fly ash, is scheduled to begin about the second week of September.

But that waste also is supposed to be shipped to Nevada, so it remains unclear if that operation also will be delayed by the legal dispute.

"At this time, we do not know whether the (Nevada) issues will affect authorization to begin removing waste from Silo 1 and Silo 2," said a memo sent to all Fernald employees July 27.

Energy officials say they want their contractor, Fluor Fernald, ready to begin removing the waste two weeks after being told to proceed, and ready to ship the waste 45 days after that notice is given.

Energy department lawyers have promised Nevada officials a 45-day notice before the first shipment of waste is sent.

The total budget for cleaning the three silos is $400 million. The total budget for cleaning the entire 1,000-acre Fernald complex - an operation that includes cleaning contaminated underground water, demolishing dozens of buildings, removing millions of tons of contaminated soil and cleaning the silos - is $4.4 billion.

All of the bills from the Fernald cleanup are paid by taxpayers.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com