Inside testing done, soil sampling begins at Missouri school

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed testing inside a Missouri school closed amid concerns of radioactive contamination, and sampling of soil outside the school has begun, Corps officials said Friday.

A suburban St. Louis school board voted last week to close Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Missouri, after testing by a private firm found levels of radioactive isotope lead-210 that were 22 times the expected level on the kindergarten playground. It also found high levels of polonium, radium and other material inside the school, which sits along Coldwater Creek, a 19-mile (31-kilometer) waterway contaminated decades ago with Manhattan Project atomic waste.

The Corps said in a news release that radiation detection instruments were used to scan surfaces inside the school. That work began Monday and concluded on Friday.

Sampling of soil outside the school began Wednesday and is expected to go on for another two weeks, the Corps said. The agency plans to sample at least 45 spots, with depths ranging from 15 to 28 feet below the surface.