82° and Overcast
Image
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Shipments of radioactive waste in Lewiston that is left over from the Manhattan Project are being sent to Texas, officials confirmed to WIVB News 4 on Tuesday.
The materials are being trucked from Lewiston to Buffalo and then being taken by train to Andrews, Texas, near the New Mexico state line. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the transportation began last week.
The radioactive waste has been at a 191-acre site off of Pletcher Road and contains roughly 6,000 cubic yards of soil along with around 4,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater. The area sits roughly a mile and a half east of Lewiston Porter Schools.
According to News 4 Investigates reporting from 2024, the cost is projected at several hundred millions of dollars and could take more than a decade. The first phase of the project will last until 2027. Future phases include removing 250,000 cubic yards of waste and residue from the Interim Waste Containment Structure (IWCS), and underground vault.
The waste materials were supposed to be sent to Michigan, but a judge halted the shipments last year.
The materials are left over from the top-secret World War II project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb. The Niagara Falls Storage Site was used by the Manhattan Engineer District to store radioactive residues and wastes from uranium ore processing beginning in 1944, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Waste materials continued to be brought to the site until 1952. Initial cleanup began in 1986.
