Atomic weapons waste site draws tourists

WELDON SPRING, Mo. -- It is perhaps Missouri's oddest tourist site -- a seven-story high tomb of radioactive waste and an interpretive center detailing the history of a place where Cold War bomb materials were born.

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy officially welcomed the public to what was a 16-year Superfund cleanup site near the Missouri River in St. Charles County, right beside the Katy Trail biking path and near the August Busch Wildlife Area.

Visitors can walk atop the mountainous site that covers 45 acres and stores 1.5 million cubic yards of waste material. A six-mile biking trail along the cell is scheduled to open in a few months.

The Department of Energy is opening its arms wider to the public at Weldon Spring than at any of its other hazardous waste cleanup sites across the country, officials said. If the experiment works, the government may grant greater access in the future to other defunct Energy Department properties.

Many people who checked out the facilities said they couldn't wait to use them.

"I think it's great, the bike trail especially. People will love that," said Will Kennon, a surveyor who has worked at the site for 10 years.

Some disturbed

Others were disturbed by the idea of people playing near a cache of radioactive waste.

The Rev. Gerald J. Kleba, a Catholic priest and critic of the cleanup, called it ludicrous. At best, it's turning a known health hazard into a recreational site, he said.

Some St. Charles County residents and environmental activists believe the waste could be responsible for a recent cluster of infant deaths and illnesses. A study by the Missouri Health Department did not find a connection.

However, Meredith Hunter, one of the original citizen activists who formed St. Charles Countians Against Hazardous Waste 20 years ago, visited the site last week and pronounced it satisfactory.

"I'm real proud," she said.