Not far from CWM is the Niagara Falls Storage Site, a federal facility where massive quantities of radioactive waste, a legacy of Niagara County industry’s role in the Manhattan Project, is stored and monitored by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The 191-acre NFSS is one of the world’s largest repositories of radium-226, for example, a toxic by-product of uranium processing. The materials are stored in a concrete containment cell, subject to continuous chemical and radon sampling, according to the Corps.

On July 20, just a week before CWM’s rainy open house, someone or someones unknown apparently took an interest in the Corps’ monitoring equipment: According to Lewiston police, six monitors were stolen from the exterior fence surrounding the NFSS. The bands holding the monitors to the fence were “very neatly cut,” according to Corps spokesman Bruce Sanders. Although he would not speculate on what that indicated, it would seem clear that this was not an opportunistic act of vandalism but rather a deliberate theft.

Two of the monitors were radon detectors, Sanders said, and four were TLDs, thermoluminescent dosimeters. Sanders said the Corps has dozens of detectors and multiple backups on the site, so there was no danger of a data gap caused by the absence of the six stolen devices.

Lewiston police said there was no physical evidence to be found at the site and they had no suspects in the theft—in other words, short of the thief posting the monitors on eBay or trying to sell them at a pawn shop, there’s little chance the crime will be solved.

If it seems curious that someone could walk up to the fence of one of the most sensitive sites in Western New York and steal expensive monitoring equipment, imagine what the Department of Homeland Security will make of the event. Homeland Security is currently evaluating security on the site; a report is due in the fall, and Sanders said the Corps has set aside money to implement whatever measures Homeland Security suggests. In the meantime, Sanders said, the Corps will move its monitoring devices inside the fence and initiate weekly walk-arounds.

That’s right: Once-a-week walk-arounds mark an improvement in the Corps’ current security measures.

Meanwhile, an expansion project at the neighboring Lewsiton-Porter schools got the go-ahead this week.