Note: This story was updated on Oct. 28 to clarify the source of the debris.
The Environmental Protection Agency is illegally withholding records that could shed light on why it approved plans to build a radioactive waste landfill in Oak Ridge over the objections of senior government officials, an environmental group claims.
The landfill serves as a receptacle for remnants of decades-old low-level radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. Its debris comes from demolished structures from the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The landfill’s location – on a Superfund site near scenic local waterways – raised contamination concerns among officials within the EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
Former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler nevertheless approved the plan, which required waiving Clean Water Act rules, in the waning days of former President Donald Trump’s administration. The decision was upheld by his successor in President Joe Biden’s administration, Michael Regan.
(READ MORE: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, site cleans up 75-year waste legacy)