What are the LOOW Site and NFSS histories?
The NFSS is a small parcel (191 acres) of a much larger defense site – the former Lake Ontario Ordnance Works (LOOW). The original LOOW site was constructed in 1942 and encompassed approximately 7,500 acres. During World War II, the U.S. Army built and operated a trinitrotoluene (TNT) plant on approximately 2,500 acres of the site known as the “developed zone”. The remaining 5,000 acres were used as a “buffer zone” around the TNT plant. The plant manufactured bulk TNT for approximately nine months and was decommissioned in 1943. In 1944 the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) started storing radioactive wastes on approximately 1,650 acres of the former “developed zone” of the LOOW. In 1947 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) took over from the MED and continued to import, store and dispose of radioactive wastes from other sites on the NFSS through 1952. The AEC gradually consolidated the storage of these radioactive wastes and reduced the footprint of its operation. Excess property was su
