Cold War-era uranium processing plant reopens as nature preserve

The Fernald Preserve and its visitor center opened at the former site of the uranium processing centre, where metal for nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1989 was processed. Shrouded in secrecy for years, the site gained national notoriety in the 1980s with media reports on site emissions and residents' concerns over radioactive contamination of air, soil and groundwater.

Visitors can walk nature trails, viewing wild ducks and geese gliding along marshy ponds surrounded by prairie grass and wildflowers.

"We are using native plants and grasses identified in an 1819 land survey to return the site to the way it was then - a haven for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects," said Sue Walpole, spokeswoman for S.M. Stoller Corp., Legacy Management's contractor.

The center doesn't try to hide the plant's tumultuous history. Newspaper and TV reports chronicling the public outcry and ensuing lawsuits are part of exhibits on display.

"We tried to show everything, warts and all," said Jane Powell, site manager for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management, which operates the site.

4.7 million tons of waste remains
More than 4.7 million tons of low-level waste remains at Fernald in a fenced-off, 110-acre pile encased in thick liners and caps made of synthetic material, clay, rock and clean soil. The 65-foot-high, grass-covered mound snaking along an edge of the preserve is about the length of two Empire State Buildings laid end to end. The rest of the radioactive waste - more than a million tons - was shipped to storage and disposal sites in Nevada, Utah and Texas.

Officials say the site has met cleanup standards established by federal and state regulators. Fernald groundwater will be pumped and treated for eight to 10 years until the drinking water standard is met.