Weldon Spring Site Information

The Weldon Spring nuclear waste site in St. Charles County is the largest of a series of nuclear sites dedicated to supporting United States government missions, primarily nuclear weapons production, from 1942 to 1972. Two other sites in the St. Louis area were used for U.S. Government nuclear materials production operations: the "downtown" or Destrehan Street site; and the Hematite site in Jefferson County, south of St. Louis. These operations not only contaminated the production sites, but also contaminated other secondary sites with significant quantities of radioactive waste. The secondary sites include the north St. Louis County sites (e.g., Airport Disposal site, Latty Avenue and various vicinity properties contaminated by spillage from waste trucking). See the Department of Natural Resources Federal Facilities Web pages and related United States Army pages for additional information on these sites. In addition, the Federal Government and its nuclear contractors used the West Lake landfill for disposal of radioactive and other wastes, which subsequently contaminated groundwater.

The primary government contractor operating these sites was the Mallinckrodt Corporation, generally referred to at the time as Mallinkrodt Chemical Works (MCW). The historic operations of the Weldon Spring site were somewhat interchangeable with the operations at the downtown and Jefferson County Hematite sites, with many of the historic files labeled simply "MCW." Mallinkrodt ended its government nuclear production work at the downtown site in 1957 and has become a modern diversified high technology company offering radiopharmaceuticals and medical diagnostic products. It is now part of a global multinational holding company conglomerate, the Tyco Healthcare Corporation.

This Web page focuses on the Weldon Spring site.

Site Overview

Correspondence and Comments Sept. 18, 2002 Long Term Stewardship Comments
Correspondence between the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Energy (DOE) and others.

Press Coverage/Articles

Site History
Recycled Uranium Mass Balance Project Oak Ridge Diffusion Plant, June 2000

A document that describes the use of uranium extracted from nuclear weapons production fuel elements (Oak Ridge Operation; excerpts from document).

Department of Energy Ohio Field Office Recycled Uranium Project Report, May 15, 2000

Background information on the use of Uranium from nuclear weapons production fuel elements (Weldon Spring Site; excerpts from document).

Site Future - Long Term Stewardship
DOE/EM Report to Congress on Long-Term Stewardship, DOE/EM-0563, January 2001, Volume I - Overview and Volume II - Missouri Chapter

A report to congress detailing the Department of Energy's existing and anticipated long-term stewardship obligations.