The Linde Air Products site converted uranium oxides mined in the western United States, Canada, and Africa into uranium tetrafluoride, also called green salt. This uranium tetrafluoride was sent to the Electro Metallurgical Company. There is was reacted with magnesium in induction furnaces to convert it to uranium metal. They then recast the metal into 110- to 135-kilogram ingots. These ingots were shipped to Hanford and other MED sites.

In March of 1944 the superintendent of Linde wrote to officials at the Manhattan Engineering District to ask about the disposal of liquid caustic wastes contaminated by radiation. The Linde official suggested putting the radioactive materials into a well on Linde's Tonawanda factory property. This suggestion had been recommended by Linde's law department because they considered it impossible to determine the course of subterranean streams and, therefore, the responsibility for contamination could not be fixed. The Manhattan Engineering District officials agreed and approved of the dumping. In a span of two years the Linde facility dumped approximately 50 million gallons of radioactive waste matter into shallow wells on its property. These wells would become congested with silt and would overflow onto the ground. Despite this, the MED insisted that Linde continue to pump waste into the ground.

In 1953, the former Linde facilities were cleaned to within the radioactive guidelines of the time. In 1980, the site was designated into FUSRAP, the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, an program developed by the DOE to study sites that were part of the MED and take appropriate cleanup action. Since then, interior decontaminations and the demolition of contaminated buildings took place in 1996 and 1998. As of 2004, properties near the Linde site include an elementary school, public parks, golf courses, as well as residential, commercial, and industrial areas.

A study during the early 1980s of workers who processed uranium at Linde Air Products in Tonawanda, N.Y. found sharply higher rates of certain cancers and respiratory ills.

References

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lm.doe.gov%2FConsidered_Sites%2FE%2FElectromet_Corporation_-_NY_04%2FNY_04-3.pdf&ei=mPzNS73nHYjSsgOGmtWvDg&usg=AFQjCNE6zUbzO9d7FbqEgik19ZJOUIZghA&sig2=edX0KsumnAT31AlTXLv5lA

http://www.ask.ne.jp/~hankaku/english/niagara_fall.html#0001

http://www.em.doe.gov/SiteInfo/LindeAir.aspx

http://www.ask.ne.jp/~hankaku/english/niagara_fall.html#0001

http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/fusrap/linde/linde-faqs-2004-03.pdf

http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/fusrap/linde/linde-fs-site-2004-03.pdf

http://www.usatoday.com/news/poison/003.htm