Trinity Day,...

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The history of the Austin Avenue Radiation Site is intertwined with that of the former Superfund Site, the Lansdowne Radiation Site, which was a twin house located at 105-107 East Stratford Avenue in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. A former University of Pennsylvania professor, Dr. Dircran Hadjy Kabakjian, owned the house at 105 East Stratford Avenue, and also worked for Cummings while the company conducted its radium refining operation at the warehouse. While a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kabakjian developed a crystallization process for the refining of radium, and then sold the process to Cummings. He worked as a consultant to Cummings until 1924, when he set up his own radium processing business in the basement of his home at 105 East Stratford Avenue. The major product of hi s home business was radium-filled implant needles which were sold to medical professionals for the treatment of cancer. The radium refining process developed by Dr. Kabakjian and practiced at Cummings? warehouse used yellowish, shale-like material known as carnotite ore which was mined from deposits in Utah and Colorado. One ton of carnotite ore could produce approximately one-tenth of a grain of radium. During Cummings? years of operation at the Union Avenue warehouse, its radium output is estimated to have been three grams per year. The radium extraction process generated waste tailings. These tailings contained two residual radionuclides--radium 226 and thorium 230. The tailings, which are sand-like waste materials, were either given or solid to local building contractors and others. During the seven years that Cummings operated at the warehouse, those persons used the tailings in mortar, stucco, plaster, and concrete used to build or renovate houses in the area.

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