The Navy is proposing to leave radioactive waste in the ground at the shuttered Hunters Point Naval Shipyard when development of the shuttered facility moves forward, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

The shipyard contains a radioactively contaminated landfill that caught fire and burned for two weeks in 2000. Environmental advocates and neighbors have called on the Navy to excavate the waste before the land is transferred to Lennar Corp. for redevelopment, but the Navy is instead proposing to "cap" 60 percent of the 22-acre dump.

The capping project would involve covering the waste with weather-resistant material.

"While some capping may be reasonable, the massive cap they are looking at is the lazy person's way of doing it," Saul Bloom, an environmental advocate who spent years studying the site, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It is a politically and budgetarily compromised analysis."

Developers are not planning to build buildings on top of the capped area. Instead, the contaminated land would be used for a park.

The Navy plans to complete the cleanup operation by 2017, at which point the entire shipyard can be transferred for to Lennar for redevelopment.

The Navy is accepting comments on the cleanup plan until Oct. 24.