[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Documentary - St Louis Area - The First Secret Nuclear City

[Chris Alston]

Roger

It's basically true.  The government chose Mallinckrodt because it had
special expertise in handling anhydrous ammonia (as best I recall).  The
plant, in St. Charles County, was the predecessor and briefly sister
facility to the Feed Materials Production Center in Ohio, making fuel core
elements for the weapons reactors at Hanford and Savannah River.  It
ultimately became the DOE's Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project, and
they did, in fact, complete the cleanup of it, and some vicinity
properties, like a quarry into which they had thrown the spoils from the
D&D of the predecessor to the Chemical Plant, in downtown.  The Army's
Corps of Engineers now manages FUSRAP (Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial
Action Program) which is ongoing at other sites in Greater STL, including
one at Lambert and one in Hazelwood.

Cheers
ca

"Secret City" seems a little hyperbolic, but I guess it "sells papers".
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 23, 2016 at 5:15 AM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Documentary - St Louis Area - The First Secret Nuclear
City
To: RADSAFE <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>


Have any RADSAFE members seen this documentary?  If so, is it accurate
or anti-nuclear preachy?

Roger Helbig


The First Secret Nuclear City

by Christina MacPherson

The First Secret City https://firstsecretcity.com/

Before the creation of the secret cities of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and
Hanford, the Manhattan Project hired the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works
of St. Louis to refine the first uranium used in the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima. For the next two decades, Mallinckrodt continued
its classified work for the Atomic Energy Commission during the Cold
War. The resulting radioactive waste contaminated numerous locations
in the St. Louis area some of which have not been cleaned up 70 years
after the end of World War II. Told through the eyes of an overexposed
worker, the story expands through a series of interviews that careen
down a toxic pathway leading to a fiery terminus at a smoldering,
radioactively-contaminated landfill. The First Secret City is a
feature-length documentary that reveals a forgotten history and its
continuing impact on the community in the 21st Century, uncovering
past wrongdoing and documenting the renewed struggles to confront the
issue.

Christina MacPherson | July 23, 2016 at 8:27 am | Categories:
Resources -audiovicual | URL: http://wp.me/phgse-oBj

http://nuclear-news.net/2016/07/23/the-first-secret-nuclear-city/
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