ILE DE FRANCE-PETITE COURONNE ILE SAINT DENIS -- shut down Purpo se: extraction of radium from uranium ore Type: factory Location: near the Seine in the commune Ile Saint Denis Operator: Société des Traitements Chimiques de Saint Denis Period of operation: 1910-1928 Materials hand led: uranium The factory obtained radium 226 for military purposes from uranium ore. It was shut down in 1928 and partially dismantled in 1948. A company that collects waste from meat now occupies a portion of the remaining buildings, which were never cleaned up. Two other owners concerned with the site are Voies Navigables de France (banks of the Seine) and the Conseil général (the road). The building and surroundings are contaminated to varying extent with uranium and radium 226. In 1998 OPRI and IPSN determined the areas of contamination. The road was partially cleansed and a covering installed over the sidewalk, which allows the public to pass. The bank of the Seine, where an old pipe discharged, is still fenced off. As of June 1999, the building had yet to undergo cleanup, but certain areas had been closed off. The site cannot be completely cleaned up until a national storage center for radium-contaminated waste has been opened and the waste on the site removed [Andra 99, OpriRa 98, p. 35]. |