The final secret of the A Bomb

1. Last Secret of the A Bomb
The source of the uranium used in the atomic
bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
has never been fully established. These slides
are the results of my investigation.

2. Manhattan
Project in
New York
The massive industrial
operation that built the
first atomic bombs was
headquartered in NYC
and 75 years later the
radioactive contamination
lurks around every corner
Sites with known contamination related
to nuclear weapons development

3. Staten Island: High Radium Levels
Found in Park
By AL BAKER
Published: September 22, 2006
Higher than normal levels of radium have been
found in part of a federal park on Staten Island,
the authorities said yesterday. The
contamination was found during part of a
counterterrorism operation: helicopter
surveillance of the city to discover low-level
radiation. A parcel the size of a football field in
the park, the Gateway National Recreation
Area, has been closed, the authorities said.
Paul J. Browne, a spokesman for the Police
Department, said that the site might once have
been an industrial facility.

4. Radiation Cleanup at Park on
Staten Island to Take Years
Park Service acknowledged that the
contamination was more extensive
than had originally been believed.
“As we’re getting through this tough
job, we’re finding that the
contamination is not only in these
discrete pockets, but is dispersed in
the soil and also at the surface,” said
Kathleen Cuzzolino, an environmental
protection specialist for the Park
Service.
More than half of the park has shown
some degree of radioactivity —
virtually the entire area containing the
historic fill.
Park officials have fenced off 260
acres, including four ball fields, the
model airplane field and a popular trail
along Hylan Boulevard. Everywhere
are signs proclaiming “Danger:
Hazard Area.”
Radium source discovered at
Great Kills 2009

5. New
contamination
concerns
FOOTPRINT OF CONTAMINATION
There was once speculation that the
contamination was limited to singular items,
like discarded needles once used to implant
radium into tumors to kill cancerous cells.
The NPS has now determined that the
contamination is the result of a variety of
items in the debris mixing together. And while
previous work at the site has focused on
radiation, there is reason to believe the waste
may have also included chemical
contaminants.
"The investigation will delineate the horizontal
and vertical 'footprint' of the contamination by
taking soil, groundwater, and surface water
samples to ensure that the subsequent
cleanup fully addresses the potential risk of
exposure to contaminants,"
March 31, 2015
Ra-226 contaminated soil

6. Marie Curie discovers
Radium in 1898
Radium is a constituent of Pitchblende, a ore
that also contains uranium. 10 tons of ore
produces 1/10 gram of radium
Luminescent properties of
radium are a result of it’s
intense radioactivity

7. History of Radium in the
USA
Standard Chemical Company formed to extract radium
from carnotite ores in Colorado.
Radium is a by-product of uranium
Uranium had little value in 1904 when France opened
its first radium plant
U.S. domestic production began with domestic
sources in 1913

8. S. W. Shattuck Chemical Company
From about 1934 to the early 1940s, Shattuck was one
of only two companies in the U.S. that produced radium
salts… Based in Denver, Colorado

9. Radium & Uranium Sources
U.S. Vanadium Corp
successor to U.S.
Radium, which was
successor to Standard
Chemical Company
Uravan mine in
Colorado established
1936

10. Radium in Medicine
Howard A. Kelly 1858-1943
Founder of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Among first to use radium in cancer
treatment n 1904
Sewed radium “points” directly to
tumors. Sometimes killing the cancer
other times killing the patient

11. Radium Needles

12. Standard Chemical
Company
Established in 1911 by Joseph M.
and James J. Flannery in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Joseph learned in Europe that
radium might treat his sister’s
cancer
Father-in-Law to Joseph A. Kelly
Sr.
500 tons of ore to make a gram of
radium
$120,000 a gram for radium

13. Radium Quacks
Today there are
no accepted
uses for radium,
but 100 years
ago the deadly
practice of
ingesting radium
was a major fad

14. Radium Horrors
Owned by Joseph A. Kelly Sr., former board member of Standard Radium
U.S. Radium Corporation spawned by
spawned by Standard Radium.
Radiation poisoning from painting
watch dials & military dials with radium
Factories in Ottawa, IL and Orange,
New Jersey
Changed to Radium Chemical Co.,
based in Queens producing radium
and polonium for atom bomb triggers
Ore from Port Radium, Canada and
Katanga, Belgian Congo was used

15. Union Minière du
Haut Katanga
Belgium mining company based in
a province of what was called
Belgian Congo, now Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Controlled 80% of the market in
in radium prior to WWII
Held most of the world’s uranium
production by 1926.
Belgian radium mines forces merger with American mines in 1922

16. Edgar Sengier
Director of Union Minere du
Haut Katanga
Credited with supplying most of
the uranium used in the
Manhattan Project
Stockpiled uranium in Staten
Island warehouse 1940-42
Allowed US troops to seize and
reopen the Katanga mine

17. Belgium-USA Special
Relationship
Lewis L. Strauss in "Men and
Decisions" (1962) makes the only reference I
have ever seen concerning Herbert
Hoover's Commission for Famine Relief of
Belgium in World War I and its relation to
Union Miniere du Haut Katanga. Hoover,
Sengier, American and Belgian executives of
Union Miniere, members of the Belgian
government, including the cabinet, well-
placed government officials in the U.S. State
Department and elsewhere (including
Strauss - who was appointed Commissioner
of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
during the Cold War) were all part of a close
knit group that comprised "a special
relationship" between Belgium and the U.S.
They were the social glue for the supply of
strategic minerals from the Belgian Congo. -
Vilma R. Hunt
Lewis L. Strauss, U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission
after WWII
Herbert Hoover,
former president of
the United States
Paul-Henri Spaak,
Belgium government in
exile

18. Shinkolobwe Mine, Katanga
Mining begins in 1921
World’s richest source of
radium and at the time the
nearly useless byproduct of
uranium
Ore was 65% uranium,
world’s richest source

19. Katanga Uranium Miners
Labor was
recruited from
Belgian Congo
indigenous tribes
and Tutsi and Hutu
of modern-day
Burundi and
Rwanda until 1937

20. In December 1941, black mine
workers at various sites in Katanga
Province, including Jadotville and
Élisabethville, went on strike,
demanding that their pay be
increased
Lubumbashi is the mining capital of
the Democratic Republic of Congo
In Jadotville, 15 strikers were shot
dead by the military.
Governor of Katanga, Amour
Maron, shot strike leader leader
Léonard Mpoyi, killing him
A painting of the Élisabethville
massacre by Congolese artist
Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu
Elizabethville Massacre
December 9, 1941

21. Procuring Uranium
MED needed high grade
uranium ore on short notice
since Canadian ore would
take a year to get on line
Union Minere operating in
the Belgian Congo agrees
to provide US government
with Uranium stored in the
US and at its Congo mine
but keeps ownership of
radium and other minerals
in the ore
Because the residue from the initial
refining of the Belgian Congo ore to black
oxide or sodium di-uranat
concentrates was owned by African
Metals, it had to be stored until it could
be returned to the owner. Tailings
containing greater than 10 percent
uranium oxide were stored at MSP
(Middlesex, NJ) or Oak Ridge
(DOE1980:4).

22. Perilous route Shinkolobwe
to New York City
By rail across
Angola to Lobito
German U-Boat

23. Dean Mill Warehouse, Staten
Island storage for two years
Radiation residue where
bags of 65% Katanga
uranium ore were stored
Dean Mill property of Archer-Dainels-
Midland, Co. under the Bayonne
Bridge Staten Island where 1200 tons
of Katanga ore was stored in 1939

24. Dean Mill Warehouse 2015
Port Richmond, Staten Island
In February 2008 at the request of
local citizens, the state asked the
Environmental Protection Agency
to re-evaluate contamination at the
Richmond Terrace site. On Feb.
20, 2008, the federal and state
environmental agencies and the
New York City health department
conducted a joint assessment of
the site, which revealed levels of
contamination approximately two
orders of magnitude greater than
the levels initially reported in 1980 -
Gotham Gazette
Approximate site of radioactive contamination
from K-65 ore used for the atomic bomb
Warehouse location

25. Office of Scientific Research
and Development OSRD-S-1
Nichols Deputy Captain
Ruhoff consults with
Stone and Webster in
Boston and Sengier in
NYC.
S-1 Executive
Committee
recommends that all of
Sengier’s ore be
acquired
Vannever Bush Chief of OSRD

26. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Nichols
Manhattan Project ore
procurement
negotiated with Edgar
Sengier for Staten
Island K-65 uranium
purchased ore from
Port Hope refinery
through Boris Pregel

27. Cunard Building 25
Broadway
The offices of Edgar
Sengier where the deal
was made for Belgian
Congo Uranium

28. Uranium Discovered in NYC
Sengier apparently
made no effort to
inform U.S.
government of his
uranium until after the
U.S. entered the war.
At a meeting in D.C.
Sengier mentioned the
ore to two economic
officers at the State
Dept.
Staten Island Warehouse 1938

29. Pax Atomica Americana
US battles for control of the world’s uranium 1943-54
Nobody had any idea how plentiful uranium was. Yet, until
they knew the endeavor seemed desperately necessary.
C.D. Howe, Canadian
minister of munitions
Emissaries were sent to C.D. Howe, Canadian
minister of munitions. Howe agreed that
control should be obtained… suggested it
would be better for the Canadian government
to quietly buy a majority share in the company
[Eldorado Mining and Refining Ltd].
The mine was geared to maximum production.
The Americans wanted as much uranium as
possible, as fast as possible.
Uranium was scarce, and Canada's uranium had
probably gained in importance because of the scarcity.

30. 1,700 Tons “Black Oxide”
To be procured by middle
of 1944 for conversion to
“feed materials”
Initial procurement begun
in 1941, by 1942 all
procurement was
assumed directly by the
Manhattan Project
Ore is inspected at
Middlesex, New Jersey
warehouse.
Uranium Oxide

31. Fortuitous Discovery
Met Lab (Argonne Nat’l Lab)
learned of the ore through
Standard Oil Development
Company, working on
centrifuge process for
uranium enrichment.
Through African Metals
subsidiary in NY - Sengier
requested an export license
for the ore.
Alumni of the Met Lab pose on
the steps of Eckhart Hall on
the campus of the University of
Chicago on December 2, 1946

32. Negotiated Contract
Meeting at Bohemian Grove
of OSRD on September
13-14, 1942 leads to the
decision to buy the Staten
Island ore.
Gen. Leslie Groves presses
for purchase of the ore.
Sept. 18,23,25 agreement
made to buy 1200 tons in
NY and twice as much
stored in the Belgian
Congo.
S-1 Committee at the Bohemian Grove,
September 13, 1942. From left to right
are Harold C. Urey, Ernest O. Lawrence,
James B. Conant, Lyman J. Briggs

33. Uranium ore flows
Ore was transferred to
Seneca Army Depot at
Romulus, NY.
Uranium came faster
than it could be refined
Ore was assayed and
stored in a warehouse
in Middlesex, New
Jersey

34. Milling and Refining begins
Sengier released 100
tons of the uranium ore
for shipment to
Eldorado Gold Mines
Port Hope refinery.
Eldorado marketing
agent was Canadian
Radium and Uranium
Corporation managed
by Boris Pregel
Eldorado mine

35. Port Radium
Eldorado Mining and
Refining Ltd. owned mine
Pitchblende discovered
by Gilbert LaBine in 1930
Closed in 1936, reopened
in 1942 to supply uranium
for Manhattan Project
Canadian Uranium and
Radium Company was
their agent in New York
Gilbert LaBine
and pilot Punch
Dickens

36. Sahtugot’ine; First Nation of
Sahtu (Great Bear Lake)
Deline, NWT is known as
the “Village of Widows”
NWT cancer registry
counts 14 cancer deaths
at Deline from 1942-1960
“And for God’s sake don’t
even tell your wife what
you’re doing.” Minister of
Munitions C.D. Howe
1931 first shipment of Uranium
ore from Port Radium

37. Port Hope, Ontario Refinery
Only large scale uranium processor
in the Western Hemisphere
Refinery set up by in the
Western Hemisphere
Gilbert LeBine to
process
ore from Port Radium
Refines raw ores and
concentrates from
Shinkolobwe Mine and
Port Radium

38. Black Rock Station, Buffalo
Rail shipments to the
United States were
discreetly loaded in
small packages,
addressed to the
attention of “Mr. Bishop,
Black Rock Terminal,
Buffalo ny.” -Peter Van Wyck,
Highway to the Atom
International Bridge to Canada

39. Boris Pregel
Jewish-Ukrainian engineer and
dealer in uranium and radium
Union Minere’s Chief Sales
Agent in Europe
Signed contracts for Eldorado
Mine, Port Radium and Port
Hope Refinery
Exclusive contract with
Eldorado Gold Mines, receive
commission for radium sales
Canadian Radium & Uranium
Co. formed November 1940
Net profits rise from $50,000 in
1940 to $167,000 in 1941
Apparently did not control
Radium Chemical Company, his
Union Minere rival.
Pregel’s relationship with Union Minere
seems to have gone sour in 1939-40

40. Curie admired Pregel
Madame Curie admired
Pregel’s skill. She was
heard to say "Anyone
can refine radium - only
Boris Pregel can sell it”
Madame Curie
Quotes and
background
information thanks to
researcher and
author Vilma R. Hunt

41. Canadian Uranium and
Radium Company
Supplied radium used
by MED
Corporate Office in
Rockefeller Center
with factory in Mount
Kisco, New York
Agent for Eldorado
Mining and Refining
Ltd., Union Minière,
Radium Chemical
Company http://projects.wsj.com/waste-lands/site/212-
international-rare-metals-refinery-inc/
Boris & Alexander Pregel

42. Commercial supplier of
radium and polonium
The federal government, through the
Manhattan Project, purchased uranium
ore from African and Canadian sources.
The ore was processed by independent
refiners. In later years the market for
radium collapsed. The residues were
stored by the government for the
owners.
The government’s correspondence
identifies Pregel’s company known as
International Rare Metals Refinery and
Canadian Uranium and Radium
Company at Mount Kisco, NY as the
site involved in the extraction of radium
from these ores or residues for African
Metals, a subsidiary of the Belgian
Company, Union Minière, which
owned the Katanga uranium mine.
The contracts were only for the uranium in
these ores. The agreements provided that all
other valuable elements such as radium
belonged to the owner African Metals Corp.

43. Ties that bind Pregel and
Sengier
Pregel and Sengier went back
before World War I. They had
both graduated from the
University of Liege in Belgium
and joined the Curie circle.
Together they developed the
medical marketing of radium
throughout the world. Loyalty
was part of their code of honor.”

44. Leslie Groves wants tp
freeze Pregel out of MED
“Your contract with
Boris Pregel to treat
the sludge residue for
the extraction of
radium is something of
an embarrassment to
us.” -Groves speaking to
Sengier attributed by Vilma R.
Hunt
Gen. Leslie Groves director of
the Manhattan Project

45. Radium Delivered to African
Metals Corp 1945
The U.S. government after
buying the Staten Island
warehouse uranium ore
for $1 a pound fulfills its
bargain allowing Edgar
Sengier and Boris Pregel
to extract and keep the
ore’s radium content.

46. Bertrand Goldschmidt
France’s “father of the
atomic bomb.”
Hired by Pregel to recover
polonium, during the radium
recovery operation.
Used “dregs” left over in the
extraction of uranium from
the Belgian ore in Port
Hope.
Pregel’s group had set up a
factory for this purpose in
Mt. Kisco.

47. Polonium
Used to initiate neutron flux in the
atomic bomb
Much of the early research and
experimentation by the Monsanto
Company was directed toward
various methods of extraction of
polonium from lead dioxide, which
was immediately available in
residues from the radium refinery at
Port Hope, Canada.
MAHHAT’iM DISTRICT HISTCBT BOOS VIII, LOS ALAMOS PHOJJOCT (T) VOLUM1 3, AUXILIARY
ACTIVITIES CHAPTER kt DAYTOB PROJECT

48. Dayton Project: Last Secret
of the A Bomb
Dr. Charles A. Thomas of
Monsanto Chemical
Company is director
Investigate the chemistry
and metallurgy of
polonium
Replaced by Mound
Laboratory
Created polonium based modulated
neutron initiators used to begin
chain reactions in atomic bombs

49. George Koval Soviet Spy
A GRU spy who was assigned to
Oak Ridge Koval supplied crucial
information about the “urchin.”
Born in Iowa
Parents raised George and his two
other brothers in Sioux City until
1932, when the Great Depression
forced the family to move back to
the Soviet Union
On February 13, 1946, the G.R.U.
received a report from Koval that
included a brief description of the
manufacturing process of
polonium.

50. Boris Pregel under scrutiny
One by-product of the
congressional investigation of
alleged secrets sent to Russia in
1943-44 is a demand for the
deportation of one of the leading
uranium magnates of the world,
who was given permission to ship
uranium to Russia in May, 1943.
He is Boris Pregel.

51. Max Pavey was chief chemist at
Canadian Radium and Uranium Corp.
He died tragically young, at the age of
39, on 4 September 1957, as a result of
leukemia contracted at his place of work
Radium casualty

52. Radium Exposure in
Humans
Chemist, blue collar
worker in a radium
plant, Dial handler, Dial
Painter, Industrial
exposure,
contaminated home,
Physician, Radium
accident, injection,
water, Radiathor

53. Radioactive Waste Dumped in Landfill
BUILDING ON SITE WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1961 WITH C&D WASTE
BEING SENT TO THE CROTON LANDFILL WITH NYSDOH APPROVAL.
Canadian Radium and Uranium Company facility located
on Railroad Ave. in Mount Kisco, NY
NYTimes: MOUNT KISCO, N.Y., Dec. 17 1957,—The Canadian Radium and Uranium
Corporation pleaded guilty in village court here today to permitting employees to receive
excessive doses of radiation and failing to survey fully last spring its plant's radiation hazards.

54. Radioactive Contamination
Detected at Mt. Kisco Site
In early April 1979, Ruth Boice, a
reporter for the Patent Trader, in
response to an anonymous tip that
radiation might be found in the
vicinity of the former plant, rented a
geiger counter… [she] surveyed
the area of Kisco Avenue and
railroad Avenue, Mount Kisco. She
found readings close to the old
freight station on Railroad Avenue,
in two areas, of 0.3 and 0.35
millirems per hour.

55. Joseph A. Kelly Sr
Son-in-law to Joseph
Flannery
Founder Radium Dial
Company -1922
Founder Luminescent
Processes -1934
Citation from United
States for his war effort

56. 1921-President Warren
G. Harding presents
Marie Curie with 1 gram
of U.S. produced radium
from Standard Chemical
Company
Standard Chemical Company
became sales agent for Union
Miniere after the Shinkolobwe
Mine, Katanga in the Belgian
Congo was opened and the
price of radium plummeted.
SCC was dissolved in 1933

57. Radium Chemical Company
Subsidiary and American
marketing of Union
Minière
Joseph A. Kelly Jr. is
chief agent during
WWII
Based in New York City
-“Sixth Avenue” and
42nd St and 44th St.
According to various
reports
Beginning in 1943
procured most of the
radium for MED
Joseph A. Kelly Sr., was president of new company
Luminous Processes, Radium Dial was allowed to go
out of business. In 1936 Radium Chemical and its
subsidiary Luminous Processes into a new Radium
Chemical Company. Leadership of the new plant was
unclear until 1973 when it was Joseph A. Kelly Jr. A
Dun and Brad Street investigation showed these and
other companies shared a “similarity of directors.”

58. Radium Dial Company
In 1922 The Radium Dial
Company (RDC), division of
Standard Chemical Company
moved from Peru, Illinois to a
former high school building in
Ottawa. The company employed
hundreds of young women who
painted watch dials using a paint
called “Luna” for watch maker
Westclox. RDC went out of
business in 1936, two years after
the company’s president, Joseph
Kelly Sr., left to start a competing
company, Luminous Processes
Inc., a few blocks away. -If Liz
Were Queen blog

59. Dial painters at Radium Dial Co.
The opportunity to study a discrete human population exposed to a potentially toxic agent is rare, and it is
rarer still to be able to collect sufficient data on the exposed subjects to reach definitive conclusions about
the potency of the toxicant. Such an opportunity emerged when skeletal lesions, including tumors,
became associated with workers (luminizers) who painted luminous dials on timepieces, with radioactive
radium as the energy source for luminosity. This correlation was observed in the 1920s, when the dial
painting industry was centered in the northeastern United States.

60. Radium: A Strategic Material
December 7, 1941
U.S. enters WWII
Radium business
picks up with
demand for
luminescent paint for
military aircraft
controls

61. World War II Radium Use
1941-1945: The U.S. will use more than 190 grams of radium for luminescent instruments
during World War II. In contrast, less than 30 grams of radium were used worldwide for
this purpose during WWI.
1942: The U.S. Radium Corporation expands its facilities and its technical and managerial
personnel by 1,600%. At its peak, the company employs about 1,000 workers.
1942: E. Sengier of Union Miniere, with the help of J.A. Kelly Sr. of the Radium
Chemical Company, sells the 1,250 tons of pitchblende ore stored at Staten Island to the
Manhattan Project.
1944-1945: Radium Chemical Company supplies most of the radium required by the
Manhattan Project. The radium is used as a neutron source for testing and operating
atomic piles and for the trigger mechanism for the atomic bomb. J.A. Kelly Sr. received a
U.S. government citation for his war effort. Argonne National Laboratory

62. Radium purchased by MED
Radium Chemical Company supplies radium for use as
a neutron source in early research into the “urchin” a
trigger device located at the center of the atomic bomb

63. Declining Price of Radium
1946-1952
Isotopes and Innovation: MDS Nordion's First Fifty Years, 1946-1996 By Paul Litt
Uranium Company By Robert Bothwe
1921-$75,000/gram
1934-$50,000/gram
1944-$11,000/gram
1946-$11,110/gram
1947-$6,900/gram
1948-$5,000/gram
1949-$4.980/gram
1950-$5,760/gram
1951-$6,900/gram

64. 1 East
42nd Street
Business office of
Joseph A. Kelly
Jr. founder of
Radium Chemical
Company

65. “Beginning in 1943, the Radium Chemical Co. supplied
most of the radium required for the Manhattan Engineer
District. Combinations of material supplied and/or
mixed by the Radium Chemical Company included
radium bromide and radium bromide mixed with
powdered beryllium. Brass was also used.”

66. Radium
Chemical
Company
Occupied from 1939 to 1944
by the Radium Chemical
Company, a family-owned
radium supplier that is believed
to have had offices or factories
in at least a dozen addresses in
the city since its founding in
1913. -NYTimes May 5, 1988 235 East 44th St., NY, NY
High Radiation levels found
One of a dozen RCC facilities in NYC

67. Visting Radium Chemical Co.
Beryllium-Radium neutron source
George Cowan Met Lab (later Argonne National
Lab) chemist on his trip to Radium Chemical
Company (the site was also Uranium
Corporation of America by Cowan) a two-story
brick facility on Sixth Avenue in NYC
“Radium Chemical Company, a subsidiary of the
Union Miniere du Haut-Katanga of Belgium, the
dominant source of world uranium supplies, was
willing to rent a gram of radium… Szilard’s lack
of affiliation made the Radium Chemical
Company nervous.” The Making of the Atomic
Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Eventually Radium as a
neutron source would be
replaced by Polonium
“Beryllium Vendor designation
added to Facility Type.
Time Period changed from
mid1940s to 1943-1950.”
Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program

68. George A. Cowan
nuclear weapons troubleshooter -1943
Radium Chemical Company has a Sixth
Avenue facility where Cowan acquires a
Radium-Beryllium neutron source.

69. Maurice D. Hinchey NY
State Assembly Investigates
''Although we don't
know exactly what
Radium Chemical was
doing at this address,''
the Assemblyman said,
''it would appear that
radium particles were
washed down through
the plumbing system.''

70. Radium Chemical Company
Centers for Disease Control Report
60-06 27th Avenue in Woodside, Queens
In the late 1950’s, RCC transferred its
operations to the present location in
Woodside, New York. The radium and
radon devices were stored on-site in lead
containers in a brick vault room.
Eventually the demand for radium
sources lagged as they were replaced
with advanced radiotherapy techniques
using cesium and cobalt sources.
Subsequently, many leased radium
sources were returned to RCC and were
stored on-site.
In 1983, the State of New York
suspended the RCC operating license
due to various disposal and safety
infractions

71. Radium Contamination
Radium Chemical Company
60-06 27th Avenue in Woodside, Queens
Remaining on-site were a large
number of radium-containing sealed
devices, some of which were
suspected of releasing radium and
radon gas. The amount of
radium-226 at the site was
established to be 110 Curies (Ci).
Radiation equivalent of 330 tons
depleted Uranium
Approximately 812 tons of
radioactive soil and debris and 92
cubic feet of radium-contaminated
hazardous wastes was disposed of
at facilities located in Richland,
Washington and Beatty, Nevada,
both operated by U.S. Ecology waste sent to Richland, WA from Great Kills Park

72. Piscataway Radium Incident
poorly regulated, illegal disposal
1989

73. September 11, 2001 Attacks and the war on
terror leads to “Dirty Bomb” search
NYC training slide

74. Aerial Radiation Survey NYC
August, 2005
80 unexpected “hot spots”
$800,000 survey done by
Department of Energy
Elevated radiation on
Second Avenue near the
Israeli consulate
Elevated radiation at Great
Kills Park on Staten Island

75. Radium-226 contamination up to 200
times background found over more
than half the park
NYPD discovers unexpected radioactive hot spots at
Great Kills Park, Staten Island.
closed area
of park

76. Illegal Dumping NYC
long history
Brookfield landfill Illegal dump in State Island
Fresh Kills landfill
Rikers Island

77. 1941-Great Kills Park project
expands parkland on Staten Island
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS
ARSENAL, CENTRAL PARK
FOR RELEASE Monday
TEL. REGENT 4-1000
April 28, 1941
Bids were opened today at the U. S. Engineers
Office, 17 Battery Place, before Colonel L. S.
Dillon, District Engineer, for the work of
dredging 1,300,000 yards of material from
Great Kills Harbor, Marine Park, Staten Island.
This is part of a joint plan between the City of
New York and the federal government for
providing an 8 foot deep boat harbor
at Great Kills, and placing the fill along the
south and east shore of the Bay, for the
development of Marine Park. The P. Sanford
Ross Company was low bidder with a bid of
$113,761.68…
The cost of the dredging contract is to be split
equally between the City and the federal
government, the City paying for the work and
being reimbursed by the federal government…
The plan calls for filling the entire park area
including the portion in the center of the park
now occupied by the abandoned incinerator.
The City already has a substantial investment
in this program.
Great Kills Park- 1949

78. Great Kills
Landfill
From 1944-48 15 million
cubic yards of garbage
used to fill in the park
including 265 acres with
radiation spots 200-times
normal background levels
1946 a garbage truck dumps waste
at Great Kills, Staten Island
Recent photo

79. Known Radionuclides found
in Great Kills Park
Radium 226, Radium
228, Cesium 137,
Krypton 85,Nickel 63,
Promethium 147,
Rhenium 187, Thorium
232, Cobalt 60, Cobalt
57 Germanium 68,
Natural Thorium

80. Radiation Dose in the Park
The radioactivity measured on contact
at Great Kills Park ranges from 0.01
mrem/hr to 20 mrem/hr.
Within a few feet of the source of
contamination the gamma radiation
levels found at the site drop off to
normal background.
Air monitoring in the park has not
identified any elevated levels of
radioactivity in the air.
Mrem stands for millirem or 1/1,000 of a
rem, which is the unit that measures
what effect radiation has on the body.

81. Old Staten Island Railroad
connects Port Richmond

82. Lehigh Valley RR services
the docks ad piers of NYC

83. Starrett-Lehigh Bldg. 1937
at Pier 66, about 26th St.
Starrett-Lehigh building provides a unique construction offering railway freight cars
access from the west side car float pier directly into the building for unloading and
storage. Freight cars carried by boat from New Jersey would be moved in 30-foot
elevators to truck pits on upper floors. -http://www.starrett-lehigh.com/
Uranium and Radium rich ores may have passed through

84. Float Bridge connects LVRR
from NJ to NYC by Rail
1933 - Port New York Authority Port Authority of New York New Jersey archives
The original map which was located in the World Trade Center, was destroyed 11 September 2001
A copy was fortunately made by T. Flagg! T. Flagg archives

85. High-Line Connects the
West Side
Elevated Freight
railroad passes through
former Bell Labs
building on Washington
Street. Freight trains
connected west side
rail yards to the meat
packing district south
of 14th.

86. Baker and Williams 11/1942
West 20th street warehouse where uranium from
African ore was held during WWII
High Line
RR

87. Lehigh Valley System Map - 1956

88. Freight System connects
Middlesex sampling plant
38 miles from
NYC

89. Middlesex Sampling Plant
N.J.
Initially used to stockpile weapons-
grade uranium ore. From 1943 to
1955, under the direction of the
Manhattan Project and its
successor agency, the United
States Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC), it was used to crush, dry,
screen, weigh, assay, store,
package, and ship uranium ore,
along with thorium and beryllium
ores, for the development of the
atomic bomb.

90. Lehigh Valley Main Freight Line
Makes the Connection
Lehigh Valley main freight
line connects New York
City to Seneca depot on
to Buffalo and Ontario.
Store K-65 uranium ore
moved from Staten Island
before processing at Port
Hope and Linde Ceramics
Seneca Ordnance
Depot
Lehigh Valley Rail Map 1942

91. Seneca Army Depot
First stop for Katanga Ore shipped from Staten
Island through Middlesex, NJ to Port Hope, ON

92. Lehigh Valley RR
From Staten Island by rail to Linde Ceramics in
Tonawanda, NY

93. Lake Ontario Ordnance Works
Niagara Falls Storage Site where highly
radioactive K-65 ore residue was stored

94. Uranium is further refined
These metals were then shipped to the Hanford nuclear reactors at
Richland, Washington for use in plutonium production, and from there the
plutonium was shipped to Los Alamos for use in developing the atom
bomb, and later the weapons development program (DOE 1980:5).
Once the ore was sampled, weighed, and assayed, it was shipped from
MSP to the Linde Refinery, Tonawanda, New York, where it was
processed into black oxide or sodium di-uranate concentrates. These
materials were then refined into orange oxide at the Mallinckrodt
Chemical Company in St. Louis, Missouri and E.I. du Pont de Nemours
and Company, Deepwater, New Jersey.
The green salt was used to manufacture uranium metals at du
Pont; Mallinckrodt; Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa;
Westinghouse in Bloomfield, New Jersey; Brush Laboratories in
Cleveland, Ohio, and Electromet, Niagara Falls, New York.
The orange oxide was further refined to green salt (UF4)
by du Pont, Mallinckrodt, the Linde refinery, and the
Harshaw Chemical Company in Cleveland, Ohio.

95. Linde Air Products Ceramics Plant
Tonawanda, NY (Union Carbide)
Began refining
uranium in 1943
Previously used
uranium to make
ceramic glaze
Produced Brown
Oxide and Green Salt
Radium containing
residue stored on site
Former workers at Linde Air Products
asking for government compensation to
cover illnesses contracted at the plant

96. Uranium Plant Uravan, CO
Uranium concentrate (15% U30 S, 1.10% V20 S) shipped to
Linde Air Products Co. at Tonawanda, NY to produce black
oxide.

97. Uranium Extraction Linde

98. Linde Contracted to Refine
African and American Ore
Increased number of deaths above expected were
laryngeal cancer (observed 5) and pneumonia
(observed 17).
Appendix B contains a memorandum of June 4, 2009
([Name Redacted] 2009), to SC&A from a Linde SEC
petitioner, attaching four memoranda from 1944, and
asserting that, contrary to NIOSH’s assumption in its site
profile of 8%–12% U3O8 content for African pitchblende
feedstock, “65% Belgian Congo ore was processed at
Linde during the operational time period.” Review of the Linde Ceramics
Plant Special Exposure Cohort (SEC) Petition 00107 and the NIOSH SEC Petition Evaluation Report

99. 65% Uranium Ore increases
workers radiation exposure
The operational period at
Linde continued until
1949. Beginning in 1949,
the Linde site underwent
decontamination and
cleanup, and in 1954, the
site was released for
private use. The post-1954
era at the Linde site is
known as the residual
period, and it is during
this time that the various
buildings at the site began
to undergo renovation and
remediation;

100. Absence of forethought
for long term waste storage

101. Linde Plant
waste was
stored here
Former silo where
K-65 high radium
content residues
stored at the LOOW-
NFSS site

102. Tonawanda Manhattan
Project Legacy
The Tonawanda, N.Y. FUSRAP Site
consists of five properties:
Contaminated with radioactive wastes
resulting from the uranium ore refinery
operations conducted in Tonawanda by the
U.S. Army's top secret Manhattan
Engineer District
Between 1942 and 1946, 8,000 tons of
filter cake residues, resulting from the
processing of domestic uranium ores and
residues at the Linde facility, were dumped
on the ground in a layer 1 to 5 feet thick at
the 10.8 acre Haist property (now known
as Ashland 1).
20,500 tons of high-radium-content
residues from the processing of African
pitchblende ores were taken to the Lake
Ontario Ordnance Works site near
Lewiston, NY. And 154 tons of residues
were taken to Middlesex, NJ.
http://www.factsofwny.com/overview.htm
Domestic low concentration uranium
waste was stored at Ashland Oil site

103. Mallinckrodt Chemical Inc.
Centralizes U.S. Uranium Processing