Residents of town urge demolition of old nuclear rod production plant

HEMATITE, Mo. -- A web of lawsuits is the only thing that keeps a defunct Westinghouse factory standing in this rural eastern Missouri town. But for some nearby residents, demolition can't come soon enough.

The plant used to make nuclear fuel rods and has been linked to chemical contamination in nearby well water, prompting anxiety among residents and triggering the lawsuits.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday that Westinghouse Electric Co. had predicted the plant, which has been idle since 2001, would be razed in 2005 or 2006. Now, it appears the buildings won't be torn down and the site completely cleaned up until next year at the earliest.

For years, residents in this town have known something was wrong with the plant.

"When I would shower, my eyes would burn," said Marcus Shepherd.

In 2002, Shepherd, his wife and four children moved into a home a few thousand feet from the plant. "We figured, it's a new house, it's on a well, we'll get it checked," he said.

Tests found chemical contaminants, which were used as cleaning agents at the plant in the 1950s and 1960s, in the Shepherds' well and in the wells of several nearby homes.

The chemicals, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, have been linked to cancer and other health problems.

Current and former plant owners settled many legal claims with local residents, paying sums of between $12,000 and $20,000. But new legal issues surfaced this year.

In March, the family whose well had the highest level of contaminants sued Westinghouse. The company has already bought that family's home.

And in May, another family, which had argued that Westinghouse should buy its house, advanced its legal battle in the Missouri Supreme Court.

The company is now working with the federal government and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to develop a plan to clean up the site and tear down the plant's buildings, which have been cleaned of uranium and locked down, said Kevin Hayes, community relations manager with Westinghouse.

Missouri has sued Westinghouse, seeking damages for the costs of monitoring the plant and for the contamination of state resources. That suit hinges at least in part on the details of the plan to clean up and tear down the plant.

Meanwhile, Westinghouse has filed its own suit against previous owners and the U.S. government for the cost of tearing down and cleaning up the plant.

Also at issue is what to do about the chemical contaminants and radiological material that was dumped into unlined pits on the site decades ago.

In July, the Department of Natural Resources approved a report by Westinghouse detailing the conditions of soil and water quality near the plant. A public meeting will be scheduled to discuss the results of that report, Hayes said.

Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. opened the plant in 1956 in an undeveloped area of Jefferson County south of St. Louis. For decades the plant churned out nuclear fuel rods, primarily for the Navy. The plant was also used for research of such projects as atomic-powered aircraft and spacecraft.

Last year Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest maker of nuclear power plant equipment, became the plant's latest owner when it bought Westinghouse.

Dennis Diehl, director of the Jefferson County Health Department, said it was important to be patient with the process.

"My understanding is there's been a lot of debate about how to determine what contamination could be there (in the pits)," Diehl said. "They're trying to do the right thing. If that's the case, maybe a little bit of a delay is not a bad thing," he said.