Gov. Tom Ridge this week announced the release of $4.3 million in capital budget funds for remediation of low-level radioactive material in the Quehanna Wild Area, Clearfield County.
The Quehanna Wild Area, located in Black Moshannon State Forest, contains small amounts of low-level radioactive waste left over from industry operations decades ago. Since the levels of radiation at the site fall above the lowest acceptable levels set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the radiation is not considered dangerous.
"This is a wonderful piece of forest land, now protected by our Wild Area designation. We are grateful for the capital budget funds to allow us to take care of unfinished business," said Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary John C. Oliver.
In 1955, 50,000 acres of state forest lands were sold to the Curtiss Wright Corporation, which developed nuclear jet engines and conducted research in nucleonics, metallurgy, electronics, chemicals and plastics. In addition to Curtiss Wright, various other industries using radiation in their manufacturing processes occupied the facility over several years.
The land was returned to the state in 1966 and is now managed as the Quehanna Wild Area by DCNR's Moshannon and Elk state forest districts. Several buildings from the former industrial operations are now occupied by PermaGrain, a manufacturer of specialty wood and tile flooring.
The remediation project will remove or stabilize all residual low-level radioactive materials from the laboratories, small pool-type research reactor, offices, decontamination areas, and waste processing and storage areas on the site. Removed contaminated material will be disposed of at an out-of-state disposal site or stored at the site for future disposal.
"DEP will independently oversee the project for DCNR to make sure that the contractor protects employees and the public from any exposure," DEP Secretary James M. Seif said.
The state is now soliciting proposals from contractors to perform the cleanup operations. Work is likely to begin this fall. The decontamination of the site is expected to take about a year and will be worked around the operations of PermaGrain.