Annual environmental monitoring summary, July 1975--June 1976

Monsanto Research Corporation operates Mound Laboratory, a government-owned facility of the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, at Miamisburg, Ohio. Mound Laboratory is an integrated, research, development, and production facility performing work in support of ERDA weapon and nonweapon programs with emphasis on explosive and nuclear technology. Mound Laboratory originated as a technical organization in 1943 when Monsanto Chemical Company was requested to accept responsibility for determining the chemical and metallurgical properties of polonium as a project of the Manhattan Engineering District. Work was carried on at Monsanto`s Central Research Department and several satellite units in the Dayton, Ohio area. Late in 1945, the Manhattan Engineering District determined that the research, development and production organization established by Monsanto at Dayton should become a permanent facility. A search for a suitable location in early 1946 led to the selection of a 180-acre tract adjacent to Miamisburg, about ten miles (16 km) south of Dayton. Construction of Mound Laboratory, which was named after the Miamisburg Indian Mound adjacent to the site, began in February 1947 and was completed in 1948. The new laboratory was the first permanent facility of the Atomic Energy Commission which had succeeded the Manhattan Engineering District