ST. LOUIS (AP) – The regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to announce an order related to cleanup of West Lake Landfill, the suburban St. Louis site where Cold War-era nuclear waste is buried near a smoldering underground fire.

EPA Region 7 Administrator Mark Hague will offer details Thursday afternoon.

Nuclear waste was illegally dumped at West Lake Landfill in 1973. The material dated back to the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb in the 1940s.

The underground fire burns no more than 1,200 feet away at the adjoining Bridgeton Landfill. Both landfills are owned by Republic Services.

No illnesses have been linked to the nuclear waste, but the EPA has been criticized by some nearby residents for moving too slowly on a plan to remediate the site.