W.R. Grace Locality Map

W. R. Grace and Company (FUSRAP Site)

The W.R. Grace and Company is located on an industrialized peninsula in south Baltimore, Maryland. In the 1950’s the W.R. Grace and Company milled thorium for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), a predecessor agency for the US Department of Energy. W.R. Grace began processing radioactive materials at the site in the 1950s, when Rare Earths, Inc. (W.R. Grace’s predecessor) entered into a contract with AEC to extract thorium and rare earths from naturally-occurring monazite sands. Rare Earths’ contract with AEC and its license to possess, transfer and use radioactive thorium were transferred to W.R. Grace and Company. Building 23, where the thorium processing took place, was open until the late 1950s when the contract was terminated. The wastes were buried in a landfill area. Thorium processing resulted in low-level waste that was buried on the property. Radiation surveys have shown that radioactive contamination still persists in the waste burial area, the waste management area which surrounds the waste burial plot, surfaces surrounding vats and hoppers in Building 23 and alpha-radiation surface contamination in the whole of Building 23. The site was designated by DOE for remedial action under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) in 1984. This site was one of the 21 Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) sites where cleanup responsibility was transferred to the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1997 in accordance with the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act for FY 1998. Cleanup responsibilities transferred at that time from DOE-EM to the USACE.