Not to be left behind in the natural-solutions sweepstakes, Missouri’s senior U.S. senator, Josh Hawley, coaxed a presidential cabinet member to commit to cleaning up messes.
In a hearing Thursday, according to news reports, Republican Hawley was told by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that she would support Hawley’s legislation — aka “Justice for Jana†— to address nuclear waste at Jana Elementary in the Hazelwood School District.
Granholm said she backed the proposal to test all Hazelwood schools’ property for radiation, as well as pay for new construction in districts affected by decades-old nuclear contamination.
In March, the school district announced that the school would be shut down permanently, the result of testing by a private company that showed high levels of radioactivity in the school and around the playground.
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The school, which opened in 1970, sits on the flood plain of Coldwater Creek in Florissant. That creek was contaminated with radioactive waste, the result of storing residue from uranium processing for the nation’s atomic weapons program beginning in the 1940s.
The initial school closure in October affected about 400 students, who were dispersed to five other schools within the district.