“Zero trust”: St. Louis nuclear coverups

A Freedom of Information Act Request regarding Manhattan Project and Cold War radioactive contamination at numerous sites across the St. Louis region garnered some 15,000 pages of documents. A collaboration between AP, MuckRock, and Missouri Independent analyzed them, resulting in major coverage. Disregard for worker and public health by officials at the Atomic Energy Commission, uranium processor Mallinckrodt Chemical, Cotter, and other companies, is revealed. The secrecy and callousness has put employees and families residing near radioactive contamination, and their descendents, at grave health risk ever since. Organizations like Just Moms STL continue the fight for environmental justice. Decades of government and corporate mismanagement has led to doubt about present assurances of safety. “There is zero trust,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER. Photo: Surface fire at the West Lake Landfill, February 2014