County and federal officials will meet with north county residents May 23 to outline plans to demolish eight buildings and remove radioactive soil from the proposed detention center site on Ordnance Road in Glen Burnie.

The 85 acres of county-owned land was contaminated by radioactive thorium nitrate that was stored in the warehouses when the property was part of the U.S. Army General Services Depot at Curtis Bay. The thorium was stored in granular form that dissolved when water got into the barrels.

The contamination was not detected when the federal government released the buildings for sale to the county in 1981.

Eleven other World War I-era buildings on the property -- which are not contaminated with thorium -- also will be removed. All the wood-frame warehouses are covered by 4-by-8-foot asbestos panels.

The contractor, Rust Remediation Services, a Columbia, S.C., company, and a construction inspector also will be introduced at the meeting. They will discuss the work schedule, work plan, safety equipment and precautions that will be used during the cleanup.

The meeting is to begin at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Glen Burnie High School on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard in Glen Burnie.