#9 Reverse ferret!
I've spent nearly two hours reading this account of the activities at the Mallinckrodt plant.
https://www.atomicheritage.org/sites/default/files/resources/The%20Mallinckrodt%20Chemical%20Works%20Story.pdf [pdf]
From 1942 to 1958, the plant served as the pilot plant for the Weldon Spring operation that Besoeker mentioned.
The chemical operations they preformed are pretty hair-raising. Radiation was apparently the least of their concerns. They were doing large-scale purification of uranium compounds using wartime controls (or lack thereof). I would imagine that the whole area around the plant was contaminated with uranium and daughter species. They probably just tore down the most offending buildings and built new ones on the site.
Mallinckrodt had been storing radioactive slag (left over after the uranium had been extracted) at the airport (due to contractual requirements with Belgium), but later a contractor haphazardly moved much of it to Cold Water Creek, as shown in the photo of barrels in the Daily Mail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Water_Creek
The whole area was heavily contaminated and is now a high priority Superfund site.
Great job, building a school near that.
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