Thread by @CherylRofer

I woke up this morning in a good mood. It's the anniversary of when I got a fax (1998) inviting me to come to Tallinn to discuss the remediation of a former Soviet yellowcake factory. 1/

Before the holiday break, I had sent a proposal for a NATO conference on the site and its potential remediation.

"Come to our meeting of Baltic Sea countries on January 22." 2/

It was part of the national labs' response to the breakup of the Soviet Union. We were doing lots of exciting things and very hopeful. 3/

The Occupational Health group went into action. I had shots every few days, sometimes in both arms.

Paperwork went through.

On January 17, I overnighted in Denver on my way to Chicago, Frankfurt, and Tallinn. 4/

The big problem was an immense tailings pond, a kilometer long by half a kilometer wide, 50 meters from the sea, on a geologic stratum of unstable clay. 5/

We proposed a conference to NATO, held the conference in October in Tallinn, and my Estonian colleagues used the book from the conference to convince the EU to fund much of the cleanup. 6/

The cleanup was completed in 2009 and a port developed in the area. The port continues to expand. This photo is from 2011. The green area is the covered tailings pond.

It's maybe the best thing I've done in my life. My Estonian colleagues did all the hard work, of course, but I helped get it started. 8/

Things can change rapidly. We didn't think that the Soviet Union would end the way it did. A lot of things have gone bad since then. But I believe we can turn them around. 9/9

Here's a longer writeup, with more photos.
lab2lab.stanford.edu/e-archive/welc…