Texas Instruments to pay feds $15 million for Shpack cleanup

Texas Instruments to pay feds $15 million for

Shpack cleanup

BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF | Posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 1:25 am

Texas Instruments has agreed to reimburse the federal government $15 million as part of a consent

decree covering costs of removing radioactive contamination from the former Shpack landfill on the

Norton-Attleboro line.

According to the agreement, the Dallas-based company will pay the Army Corps of Engineers within 15

days. Texas Instruments did not acknowledge any liability as part of the settlement.

At least $70 million has been spent on the years-long cleanup, according to papers filed in connection

with the lawsuit.

Texas Instruments could not be reached Tuesday for a statement regarding the settlement.

The consent decree was filed Nov. 8 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Texas Instruments, which merged with Metals and Controls in 1959, worked with radioactive materials at its Attleboro plant from 1959 to 1981, according to the complaint filed by the Justice Department.

The suit claimed that the company arranged for disposal of radioactive Uranium-234, -235 and -238 at

the Shpack site stemming from nuclear fuel operations at the Attleboro plant, in part from contracts with

the former U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and other, commercial, entities.

Radium-226 used in making items such as thermostats and circuit breakers also was found, according to the document.

The Schpack landfill, which was used by businesses as well as residents, was found by the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission in the 1970s to be contaminated with radiation, according to the Justice

Department complaint.

Court documents also said a survey found electrical components, a sign identified as coming from Texas Instruments and ashes from uranium-containing zirconium chips dumped by the company.

In 2009, according to the complaint, Texas Instruments and 10 other potentially responsible parties

signed a consent degree to address chemical contamination at the site.

The Army Corps of Engineers spent several years removing radioactive materials from the site.

It began the operation in 2005 and completed digging in July 2011.

The excavation included more than 50,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, and more than 35,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil was shipped to a storage site in Clive, Utah.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now undertaking removal of chemical contaminants from

the site. Well inspection and surveys of the parcel are expected to begin next month.

Excavation of the chemical contaminants are expected to begin in the spring, and could be completed in 2014.

The 9.4-acre Shpack site straddles the Norton-Attleboro line, with six acres in Norton and 3.4 acres in

Attleboro.

The Norton side of the site operated as a landfill from 1946 to 1975. The Attleboro side operated from

1946 to 1965.

Texas Instruments agrees to pay $15 million to the U.S. government to help clean up the Shpack landfill superfund site in Massachusetts

By Sheryl Jean

Texas Instruments Inc. has agreed to pay $15 million to the federal government to cover part of the cost of cleaning up radioactive contaminants at the Shpack landfill superfund site in Massachusetts.

The Dallas-based chipmaker did not acknowledge any liability for nuclear material found at Shpack as part of a lawsuit settlement filed last week in U.S. District Court in Boston.

“Although TI vigorously disputes the United States’ claim … TI would prefer to focus its resources on manufacturing semiconductors for a wide variety of electronics applications, rather than litigate against the U.S. government for what likely would have been several years,” said TI spokeswoman Whitney Jodry.

TI and a predecessor company (Metals and Controls Inc.) worked with radioactive materials in nuclear fuel operations under contracts with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at the site on the border of Attleboro and Norton from the 1950s through 1981, according to the lawsuit. 

In 2009, TI and 10 other “potentially responsible parties” signed a consent decree with the U.S. government to address chemical contamination at the site, but later that same year, TI filed a complaint alleging that liability for disposal of radioactive materials relating to its AEC work is subject to indemnity by the U.S. Department of Energy. That case will be dismissed as a result of the consent decree.

A survey by the U.S. Energy Department found radioactive contaminants, primarily radium and uranium, on the site, according to the suit. Court documents also said Radium-226, which is used to make thermostats and circuit breakers, was found.

The U.S. Justice Department filed suit against TI on behalf of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will receive the $15 million