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Officials to search former Springfield Armory locations for traces of depleted uranium from 1960s weapons testing

Army records show the Armory received 1,400 rounds containing depleted uranium in the 1960s, but only has records what happened to 200 of them after that.

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The Federal Street entrance to the campus of Springfield Technical Community College carries a reminder of the site's historical past as the Springfield Armory.

SPRINGFIELD – State inspectors will be searching the grounds of the former Springfield Armory on Thursday for traces of radioactive materials used in weapons testing more than 40 years ago when the armory was still in production.

Suzanne Condon, Director of the Bureau for Environmental Health for Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said inspectors with monitoring equipment will be on the campus of the present-day Springfield Technical Community College to look for traces of depleted uranium. She said she hopes to have the investigation wrapped up by Friday afternoon.

She emphasized that while the investigation is necessary but health risks to the public are minimal.

“We don’t want people to panic,” she said.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the production of enriched uranium for nuclear power. It has 40-percent less radioactivity, but the same chemical toxicity as natural uranium, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Depleted uranium is commonly used in armor-piercing ammunition.

Condon said the depleted uranium is considered a chemical hazard, not a radiological one.

The armory, then a part of the Department of Defense, closed in 1968. While in operation, it included what is now the STCC campus, the STCC Technology Park, and the Springfield Armory National Historical Site at State and Federal Streets, and the Watershops Pond site at 1Allen Street. The testing will be limited to about 50 acres over seven separate sites. The sites were not identified, but one site, the grounds of the Springfield Armory National Historical Site, have already been ruled out.

Army records showed the federal Armory received 1,400 spotting rounds during the early to mid-1960s, but there was no record of what happened to most of them after that. Records show 200 of the rounds were sent to a site in Pennsylvania after Springfield.

Spotting rounds were used to mimic the trajectory of actual bullets. They were used to test the performance and accuracy of weapons, primarily at indoor ranges.

Condon said it is not clear that any of the depleted uranium is on site. All that is known at this point is the U.S. Army cannot find records that it was ever removed.

“What we know is that it was used,” she said. “They’re saying they brought it there. There’s supposed to be a paper trail.”

The Army is going through its archived records to track the remaining 1,200 rounds, but the search is expected to take well into April, she said.

She said it was decided to search in Springfield immediately rather than wait for the Army .

“We’re going out there to see if there is anything there,” she said.

The decision was made to publicize the investigation in advance to minimize any panic, she said. ”We don’t want people to get concerned that it is something more than it is,” she said.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno issued a statement that said he has been briefed by Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach.

He said he has instructed the city health director, its emergency preparedness director and his office to assist in any way they can.

STCC president Ira Rubenzahl sent an e-mail out to students, faculty and employees informing them of the investigation. He noted that in 1997, the site of a former shooting range in Building 28 and the area around it was cleaned up as part of a lead abatement project overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“In all likelihood, any uranium material would have been removed at the same time, he said.



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