Iowa Ordnance Plant

Site Description, Operational History, And Process

The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP) is a load, assemble, and pack munitions facility that began production in 1941 and continues to operate as a Government-owned, contractor- operated installation. IAAP is in the southeastern part of Iowa, near the town of Middletown in Des Moines County. It is about 10 miles west of the Mississippi River and the town of Burlington (U. S. Army 1988). Less than a third of the IAAP’s 19,015-acre (30-square-mile) property is occupied by active or formerly active production or storage facilities. The remaining
land is evenly divided between leased agricultural acreage and woodlands (JAYCOR 1996). Since operations began in 1941, IAAP has used explosives and lead-based initiating compounds to produce a wide variety of ordnance items. The Line 1 area, portions of the Firing
Site (FS) area, the Explosive Disposal Area (EDA) sites, and Yards C, G, and L came under the jurisdiction of the Atomic Energy Commission [AEC; now the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE)]. In addition, the Security Command Center, the Emergency Response Command Post the Deactivation furnace, Line 3 Warehouse 301, and the North Burn Pads Landfill might have been utilized. This area, totalling around 1,630 acres, became known as the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant (BAECP). The site was officially renamed the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in 1965. The site has also been referred to as the Iowa Ordnance Plant.
 
During the summer of 1947, Silas Mason Company entered into a contract with the Ordnance Department to assist in the design and engineering to perform the construction and to operate a facility for the purpose of supplying the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) with explosive components for nuclear weapons. In May 1948, Silas and Mason Company supervisor personnel entered a training program at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (China Lake California). Upon returning from training, these supervisors trained other IAAP personnel.
 
By the spring of 1949, IAAP was at full production for HE fabrication (Mitchell 2003). In March 1949, it was decided that certain weapon assembly operations (non-nuclear components) would also be conducted at IAAP (Poole and Harrison, 1954, Mitchell, 2003). Until March 1949, all of the initial work at IAAP focused solely on high explosive manufacturing. Based on a review oIAAP Project History reports (Poole and Harrison, 1954), NIOSH has concluded that the first nuclear weapon assembly operations began in 1949 with the Mark IV.
Based on the review conducted during the development of the initial site profile, NIOSH felt certain that fissile materials were onsite from at least 1958 forward. The concern for these materials is that they are generally the most radioactive component of a nuclear weapon and result in the largest external dose. NIOSH has uncovered considerable evidence that indicated fissile materials were not onsite at IAAP until 1955. This evidence considers IAAP’s missionearly weapon design and the development of a Rad-Safe (Radiation Safety) program.
According to the IAAP History of Line 1 Operations (Ahlstrand, 1956a, 1956b, 1957b), with the planned assembly of new sealed pit weapon designs, IAAP instituted a radiological monitoring program which included the routine external dose monitoring for some workers using film badges.