The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday ordered installation of an isolation barrier to make sure that an underground fire does not reach buried nuclear waste at a suburban St. Louis landfill.
Mark Hague, EPA regional administrator, said the plan for West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton also calls for additional engineering steps such as cooling loops. The barrier will consist of an underground wall.
Nuclear waste dating to the Manhattan Project was dumped at West Lake in 1973. An underground fire has been smoldering for years and is now within 1,200 feet.
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