Weldon Spring Site

Ammunition for a World War , In 1940, just before the United States entered World War II, the U.S. government acquired 17,000 acres of land in this area under a state of emergency. More than 500 people from the towns of Howell, Hamburg and Toonerville were moved and the villages were dismantled. The Army then constructed Weldon Spring Ordnance Works (WSOW), which produced more than 710 million pounds of TNT and more than 31 million pounds of DNT explosives for the World War II effort.

Uranium for the Cold War , During the Cold War, the Atomic Energy Commission created the Weldon Spring Uranium Feed Materials Plant, operated by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works of St. Louis. From 1957 to 1966, the plantation converted uranium ore concentrate (yellowcake) into pure uranium metal, which was shipped to other nuclear weapons and fuel sites. Waste was stored in four basins and a nearby quarry.

Cleanup and Permanent Legacy , Beginning in 1986, the U.S. Department of Energy began a cleanup of the uranium-processing site. The Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project (WSSRAP) took 16 years to complete at a cost of almost one billion dollars. The project involved encapsulating about 1.5 million cubic yards of radioactive and chemical waste in a 45-ace disposal cell. The cleanup included the four waste basins and quarry: 6,130 steel drums; contaminated soils and materials; and the removal of 44 buildings. Everything went inside the seven-story disposal cell, which is armored with compacted clay, synthetic liners, gravel, sand and rock. The cell received its final load of waste in July 2001. The area also now includes a visitor center, hiking and bicycling trail and prairie restoration area.

The U.S. Department of Defense's cleanup of the former Weldon Spring Ordnance Works cost about $40 million and took approximately the same amount of time as the WSSRAP project. Remediation of this site included the removal and treatment by incineration of over 50,000 cubic yards of soil and approximately 83,000 feet of wooden pipeline, which was contaminated with TNT and DNT explosive residuals and lead. The WSOW has been returned to beneficial use by the Army Reserve as a training area.

Communicating a Message in the Future , Long-term stewardship should ensure that the Weldon Spring site is fully protective of human health, public welfare and the environment. The Weldon Spring disposal cell is designated to last a thousand years and to withstand maximum precipitation events and earthquakes. Also, there is a long-term plan being administered by the U.S. Department of Energy with oversight by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. This plan includes such things as monitoring, inspection, maintenance and information sharing.

The uranium waste in the cell has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, meaning it will be half as radioactive after that time. Federal and state agencies want to ensure the message of what is inside the cell will not be lost or forgotten, even if technologies and governments change over time. because of these concerns, long-term stewardship activities include having citizens visit the site and understand the actions that have taken place. This will help ensure the safety of the site for many generations.