radiological · Niagara County
Titanium Alloys Manufacturing / TAM Ceramics
Town of Niagara
Manufacturing property at 4511 Hyde Park Boulevard where federal records document a 1955 experimental melt of uranium-contaminated stainless steel and aluminum. The survey table identifies “Slag from Melt,” but the reviewed public record does not establish where that experimental slag was ultimately placed. A separate two-day uranium-compound experiment followed in 1956. Later state cleanup records address the broader industrial property and adjoining landfill corridor.
The documented story
What happened here?
Titanium Alloys Manufacturing operated a large metals and ceramics complex at 4511 Hyde Park Boulevard. NIOSH treats January 1955 through December 1956 as the covered Atomic Weapons Employer period evaluated for radiation-dose reconstruction.
In 1955 TAM experimentally melted 40 pounds of uranium-contaminated stainless steel with 30 pounds of aluminum supplied from Mallinckrodt. The feed metal had been cut into pieces approximately three inches square. NIOSH reports about 90 grams of uranium in the charge, a maximum incoming total-alpha surface reading of 26,800 dpm per 100 square centimeters, and slag among the resulting materials.
NIOSH identifies P. B. Klevin's January 1955 request, made through the AEC Health and Safety Laboratory, for Mallinckrodt to supply the contaminated metal. It also identifies an April 1956 pilot study by Klevin and W. B. Harris. Their published account, “Remelting May Permit Reclaiming Uranium-Contaminated Metals,” appeared in Nucleonics, volume 14, April 1956, pages 93–96; NIOSH states that TAM and American Smelting and Refining's Central Research Laboratory cooperated in processing the metal.
A separate bench-scale experiment on July 10 and 11, 1956 involved uranium tetrafluoride, uranium dioxide and uranium hexafluoride under an AEC source-material license. TAM's 1950-1956 zirconium-tetrachloride production is documented separately and involved no radioactive material.
DEC's later record evaluates both wastes generated or placed on the TAM property and organic contamination associated with the adjoining Hooker Hyde Park landfill corridor. Those possible sources remain distinct in this account.
Ceramic powders created a different radiological story from the landfill next door
TAM Ceramics combined specialty-material production, on-site disposal, and overlapping corridor contamination
2 historieson-site production residues and adjoining corridor contamination
Manufacturing era
Specialty powders generated ceramic and metallic residues
TAM and former NL Industries operations produced ceramic and dielectric materials. Historical waste placement left process residues in defined areas of the property.
Radiological investigation
Survey work followed the materials used and discarded on site
State investigation evaluated radiological conditions on developed and undeveloped portions of the property, separating industrial-process residue from unsupported assumptions about the entire parcel.
Corridor investigation
Neighboring organic contamination required a second source question
The property's setting beside the Hyde Park landfill complicated groundwater interpretation. Regulators distinguished material generated by TAM from organic contamination associated with the adjoining landfill system.
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
- 1906 onward
Ceramic-, dielectric- and refractory-material manufacturing developed at the property under successive operators.
- 1930-1976
Historical owners placed ceramic, mineral and metallic process residues in portions of the undeveloped property.
- 1955
TAM performed the experimental melt of contaminated stainless steel and aluminum; records identify metal product and slag but do not document the slag's final destination.
- July 10-11, 1956
A short bench-scale uranium-compound experiment was conducted at the plant.
- 1979
A radiological survey made before a property sale became part of the later investigation record.
- 1993
DOE reviewed the property under FUSRAP and eliminated it from further consideration; that program decision is distinct from later state cleanup work.
- 1995-1996
DEC reviewed the site's classification and planned additional investigation of the undeveloped property and radiological conditions.
- 2011-2012
NIOSH evaluated SEC Petition 190 and concluded that worker doses could be reconstructed; the requested employee class was not added to the Special Exposure Cohort.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The federal occupational record confirms that the 1955 test produced slag from uranium-contaminated feed material; the NIOSH survey table uses the exact label “Slag from Melt.”
- The reviewed sources do not establish the slag's final destination: no shipping, transfer, disposal or cleanup record for the experimental slag has been located. The record therefore supports a documented production point and an unresolved disposition question, not attribution to Upper Mountain Road or any other reuse location.
- State files describe large quantities of additional ceramic, mineral and metallic residues and radiological measurements in defined areas, but those broader wastes should not all be labeled radiological.
- The 1956 article described the experimental slag as containing significantly less uranium than a very low-grade ore and suggested that disposal on normal slag dumps would be permissible. That was a contemporaneous opinion, not documentation of where TAM's slag actually went or an assessment under current standards.
- Later DOE/OSTI technical literature cites the Klevin-Harris work and reports that remelting reduced uranium in nickel, stainless steel and copper to around one part per million; aluminum was less successfully decontaminated. Those experimental results do not identify the disposition of TAM's slag.
- Separate Upper Mountain Road records document plates and barium titanate associated with TAM-origin industrial material in residential fill. They do not identify that material as the 1955 uranium-bearing experimental slag, so the two records are cross-linked but not merged.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- DOE's FUSRAP screening and NIOSH's worker-dose review answer different questions from New York's hazardous-waste investigation of the property.
- The NIOSH determination means dose reconstruction was considered feasible; it is not a declaration that no radiological work occurred.
Then and now
The site today
The Atlas record separates confirmed federal-era experiments, later state cleanup records, and the unresolved question of off-site slag disposition.
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 →