US Senator Says Manhattan Project Nuclear Waste ‘Hotbed for Danger’

WASHINGTON, January 6 (Sputnik) – Radioactive waste still sitting underneath a landfill decades after the Manhattan Project, a WWII-era initiative to develop America’s first atomic weapon, could affect the health of local residents in upstate New York, US Senator from New York Charles Schumer said.

“The radioactive waste sitting underneath the Tonawanda Landfill is a hotbed for potential danger, and it is time to get a plan in place to mitigate the risk. Tonawanda residents deserve a plan [as soon as possible] that will once and for all get remnants of the first atomic bomb out of their backyards,” Schumer said on Monday.

The senator urged the US Army Corps of Engineers to release a long-awaited plan for cleaning up radioactive waste that has been sitting underneath the Tonawanda Landfill in New York for decades.

This waste, which is mostly uranium left over from the Manhattan Project, has contaminated parts of the soil and experts believe it could cause adverse health effects for local residents.

“It is unacceptable that the program put in place to clean up these sites has been underfunded year after year,” Schumer stated.

Even though radioactive waste was dumped at the Tonawanda Landfill over many years, it was not discovered until the early 1990s when the Department of Energy (DOE) conducted a radiological survey.