St. Louis Nuclear History

Located in North St. Louis, Coldwater Creek was once a natural beauty. Children would explore its wonders, reveling in the innocence of their childhood games. From catching frogs and tadpoles to playing games of hide and go seek, the children were completely unaware that the waters and sediment they waded through contained a danger that, come adulthood, could likely end their lives. In 1942, for roughly six months, a mass amount of uranium oxide for the use in nuclear reactions was produced in downtown St. Louis. The waste from this production was carelessly stored at the St. Louis Airport Storage Site (SLAPSS), where it was exposed to the copious elements of the area’s climate. While the barrels rusted, dangerous elements such as radium, thorium

The nuclear waste in the water and soil is the source of the high number of rare cancer mutations in the region, and the companies that were involved in the creation and storage of the waste should accept liability for their error.

St. Louis possesses a concealed history with nuclear technology and radioactive wastes. At the beginning of the atomic age, dating back to the 1940’s, Mallinckrodt Chemical Works began producing uranium oxide for usage in chemical reactions, which would eventually lead to the invention of atomic bombs. In 1962, the Uranium Division of Mallinckrodt sent out a newsletter that read, “Mallinckrodt’s little uranium processing plant was the sole source of supply of purified uranium dioxide to the Manhattan project until well into 1943” (“Uranium...”). An enormous amount, roughly an entire ton of uranium, was produced on a daily basis (Degarmo). This supplied the Manhattan project, a research and development project that aimed to create the first atomic bombs during World War II. Mallinckrodt eventually ran out of space to store the vast quantity of hazardous elements, and the barrels of waste were shipped to the St. Louis Airport Storage Site. Barrels