Giant nuclear waste dump in Armstrong County set to be dug up

KDKA Investigations Giant nuclear waste dump in Pennsylvania set to be dug up after decades of lawsuits and public outcry .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-cbs-news-pittsburgh.jpg'); } By Andy Sheehan Updated on: April 14, 2026 / 7:28 PM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh Add CBS News on Google After decades of cancer cases and public outcry, the federal government this week will begin the long-awaited cleanup of a nuclear waste dump in Armstrong County. The site in Apollo was a dumping ground for hundreds of 55-gallon drums containing radioactive nuclear waste. But come this week, a half-billion-dollar project to safely remove it will finally begin. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave KDKA an exclusive look at the painstaking, intensive and expensive process to rid the site of radioactive waste in Armstrong County.   Where is the nuclear waste dump?Steve Brown grew up running and playing near one of the largest nuclear waste dumps in the nation, and still lives nearby in Parks Township, Armstrong County. After decades of protests, cancer cases and multi-million-dollar class action settlements, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin this week the massive and painstaking job of cleaning it up. "We're beginning active remediation," said Col. Nicholas Melin, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. "The movement of waste material from here all the way out to Utah, where it will go into permanent storage.""The federal government is committed to fully remediating this site. Over $400 million has been invested, and over the next six to eight years, we'll be moving at the speed of safety, very deliberately removing these materials," he added.  Radioactive waste burial ground historyFor decades stretching back to the Cold War, volatile material for the U.S. military and nuclear industry was developed and enriched in nearby Apollo, and the waste was stored in 55-gallon d...