radiological · Niagara County
Electro Metallurgical Company
Niagara Falls
Union Carbide subsidiary that converted Linde uranium tetrafluoride into uranium metal, producing more than one-third of the Manhattan Project’s uranium-metal requirement.
The documented story
What happened here?
Electro Metallurgical Company, a Union Carbide subsidiary, operated the metal-production end of the Western New York uranium chain. Linde in Tonawanda converted uranium concentrates to uranium tetrafluoride, or green salt, which was shipped to Electro Metallurgical in Niagara Falls and reduced to uranium metal.
Beginning in April 1943, the purpose-built facility used the magnesium-reduction process and produced 1,538 tons of uranium metal—more than one-third of the Manhattan Project's requirement and more than any other single producer described in DOE's history.
The people behind uranium-metal production
Three-shift wartime production later became a federal compensation history
1,538 tonsuranium metal attributed to the wartime operation
1943-1949
Workers operated a new process around the clock
Production began in April 1943 and ran on three shifts at full operation. Employees handled uranium tetrafluoride, magnesium reduction, uranium-metal biscuits, melting and casting, and magnesium-fluoride slag within a larger Niagara Falls industrial plant.
Later federal review
Historical monitoring could not answer every dose question
NIOSH evaluated records for the site and a defined class was added to the Special Exposure Cohort. The class covers qualifying federal contractor employees with sufficient workdays during the August 1942-December 1947 period.
Compensation program
Recognition creates a pathway, not a blanket diagnosis
Covered workers or survivors may qualify under federal occupational-illness rules when employment and medical criteria are met. The designation acknowledges limits in reconstructing dose; it does not declare that every employee was exposed or developed disease.
Manhattan Project: uranium-metal production
Chemical guide
Chemicals named in this record
These links explain potential hazards and exposure pathways. A chemical named in a record does not establish that anyone was exposed or harmed.
Chronology
Timeline
- Early 1943
The Manhattan Engineer District arranged a full-scale uranium-metal production line through Union Carbide and its subsidiaries.
- April 1943
Production began in a dedicated one-story structure at the Niagara Falls plant.
- Manhattan Project
Linde green salt was reduced with magnesium, melted, and cast into uranium-metal ingots.
- Program total
The operation produced 1,538 tons of uranium metal, over one-third of project needs.
- 1942–1947 worker record
NIOSH later established a Special Exposure Cohort class for qualifying federal contractor employees who worked at the Niagara Falls site during the defined August 1942 through December 1947 period.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The facility handled large quantities of uranium tetrafluoride and uranium metal in a wartime industrial process.
- Magnesium reduction generated uranium-metal biscuits and magnesium-fluoride slag requiring industrial handling.
- The historical source establishes production significance but does not, by itself, define present contamination boundaries or current exposure.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Historical identification should be followed by review of federal eligibility, radiological surveys, demolition records, and any state cleanup files for the exact parcel.
- Any surviving subsurface or building impacts require conclusions based on modern sampling rather than production history alone.
- Public mapping should separate the documented production role from the regulatory status of the larger industrial property.
Then and now
The site today
This profile documents a major Manhattan Project production location and a separately documented federal worker-compensation history. The reviewed DOE and NIOSH records establish its production role and covered-work period, but the current parcel-level cleanup and residual-contamination record requires additional primary-document research before stronger present-day claims are made.
Atlas connections
Connected places
These collections explain documented material, facility, waterway, ownership, or cleanup relationships. Inclusion does not imply that every place shares one contaminant source or plume.
Niagara regional radiological record
Federal storage, industrial processing, vicinity-property cleanup, and later residential or public-property investigations form a connected regional research record.
The storage site is the principal federal property in a wider network of material handling, containment, and vicinity-property work.
Vicinity propertiesNiagara Falls Storage Site Vicinity PropertiesThese properties are managed separately where eligible material lies beyond the principal storage-site boundary.
Wartime industrial facilityElectro Metallurgical CompanyElectro Metallurgical represents a separate Manhattan Project-era industrial operation within the Niagara record.
Investigated propertyNiagara Falls Boulevard Radiation SiteThis location was identified through later radiological investigation rather than treated as part of the NFSS parcel itself.
Public-property responseDonovan Head Start Slag RemovalThe Head Start response documents investigation and removal at a public-use property.
Investigated propertyUpper Mountain Road Radiation SiteUpper Mountain Road is one of several separately bounded locations in the regional assessment record.
Vicinity investigationHoly Trinity Cemetery VicinityThe cemetery vicinity record is linked by regional radiological assessment, not by a claim that every property shares one source.
Regional assessmentNiagara–Erie Residential Radiological AssessmentThe assessment provides the umbrella research context for evaluating multiple residential and public locations.
Radiological-map connection
Place this site in the wider material history
The separate radiological investigation map distinguishes producers, processors, storage, the 100 historical survey records, federal remediation, and current assessment coverage.
Linked research mapOpen the radiological investigation →