DaytonDailyNews.com

MIAMISBURG — The Energy Department has awarded a $25.9 million contract to an Idaho company for the final cleanup of the Mound plant in Miamisburg, the agency announced Thursday.

Accelerated Remediation Co. of Idaho Falls, Idaho will clean up two contaminated areas on the former nuclear weapons plant, which is being converted to an industrial business park.

"We are quite pleased that Accelerated Remediation Company is joining us for this project and look forward to the day this final piece of the cleanup is finished and we can declare victory," DOE Ohio Field Office Manager Bill Taylor said in a prepared statement.

The company will remove radioactive materials to a level safe for industrial reuse, according to the DOE announcement.

This project wasn't included in previous cleanup work. The department had decided the wastes could remain safely buried, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had agreed.

But local officials opposed the plan, and U.S. Reps. David Hobson, R-Springfield, and Mike Turner, R-Centerville, got Congress to earmark $30 million to finish the job.

The Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corp., an economic developmen arm of the city of Miamisburg, is converting the site to commercial use as the Mound Advanced Technology Center. Approximately 19 companies and 200 employees are on the 305-acre site.

More information about the cleanup project is on the DOE's Web site at http://www.emcbc.doe.gov/Mound_OU1.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgaffney@DaytonDailyNews.com.