Community Corner
Nuclear Waste Site in Palos Township Holdover from Manhattan Project
People opposed to the use of nuclear energy visited Red Gate Woods on Monday.
A group the wants to end the use of nuclear energy met at a waste site in Palos Township this week.
Waste from the University of Chicago's famous Manhattan Project was stored in Red Gate Woods decades ago, Sun-Times Media reports. A granite marker informs people not to dig at the site.
About 20 people associated with Beyond Nuclear walked the area Monday.
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The federal government leased more than 1,000 acres from Cook County in 1942 to store the Manhattan Project’s nuclear reactor, according to the report. Nuclear fuel and radioactive reactor parts were eventually taken to Oak Ridge, Tenn. In the 1990s, a portion of the woods was quarantined for five years and cleaned up.
The Manhattan Project research program would go on to develop the first atomic bomb.
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