"Imagine you are a parent, and that out of the blue, you get a letter from your child's school telling you not to worry — that they're ready to evacuate or shelter in place if an underground fire at a nearby landfill reaches radioactive waste on the same property.

That's pretty much what happened recently in suburban St. Louis.

Landfill fires are pretty common, but this one is different. It's only about a thousand feet away from nearly 9,000 tons of nuclear waste — and there's no barrier in between.

Hundreds of people packed a recent community meeting about the landfills, located in Bridgeton, Mo."

Véronique LaCapra reports for St. Louis Public Radio (NPR) November 3, 2015. [2]