Clean up agreed for radioactive waste from Manhattan Project

By Rebecca Trager2018-02-09T11:55:00

First Atomic Explosion on July 16, 1945. First Atomic Explosion on July 16, 1945. Photograph taken at 9 seconds after the initial Trinity detonation shows the Mushroom cloud. Manhattan Project. Alamogordo, New Mexico

Source: © Everett Historical / Shutterstock

Missouri landfill site to be excavated to deal with illegally dumped material created by development of first atomic weapons

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will use a partial excavation strategy to remove the majority of the radioactive waste leftover from the Manhattan Project. The material from the second world war nuclear bomb test site has been held at a decades-old facility in Missouri known as the West Lake Landfill Superfund site. Under this excavation plan, announced earlier this month, the EPA will treat the waste and then cap the site. The agency estimates that the project will cost $236 million (£168 million) and take five years. ‘This remedy addresses all radioactive material posing unacceptable risks to the public at large,’ the agency said.