You are right Michael - Love Canal was a toxic chemical dump under a school and housing subdivision. The US has had only one nuclear accident and that was 3-Mile Island and there were no deaths from that event.

Here's more info on it:
Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. The nickname "Love Canal" came
from the last name of William Love who in 1896 began digging a canal connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie (bypassing Niagara Falls) in order to serve as a water power conduit. It was never completed but the Hooker Chemical Company, located west of the canal, had the
ingenious idea of turning the uncompleted canal into a dumping ground for the chemical
by-products of its manufacturing process.

Once the canal was filled with waste, the land was covered over and sold to the Niagara Falls
city school board for $1.00 and a school and subdivision of homes was built right on top of the
waste.

The chemicals were detected leaking out of the site in 1977 and many health problems were
also reported. Residents were evacuated after a lengthy fight with the New York State
government. Today, it remains a ghost town. The main dump site is fenced in (with a school and
many homes bulldozed over and buried in the ground with the waste). Over the rest of the area
of crumbling, dilapidated homes hangs a gaunt, eerie silence, reminding visitors of the specter
that hazardous waste poses in our modern society.
(the above was found at: http://www.iprimus.ca/~spinc/atomcc/lovecana.htm)
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I think its considered 'clean' now - it was a superfund site as well.

Canie