US elementary school tested for nuclear bomb waste from Manhattan Project

Report finds levels of the radioactive isotype lead-210 as much as 22 times the expected levels at Missouri school serving mostly Black students

The US army corps of engineers is testing for radioactivity in the kindergarten play yard, sports fields and classrooms of a Missouri school serving mostly Black students, after an independent report revealed the school may have been contaminated by nuclear bomb-making waste dumped from the second world war's Manhattan Project.

Children from Jana elementary school in the Northern St Louis area were sent home to do online learning last week, following an independent report that found levels of the radioactive isotype lead-210 as much as 22 times the expected levels in the school's play yards and some indoor spaces.