One Hundred Miles From Home

Table of Contents

1.  Foreword by Wendell Berry

2.  Introduction: Atom Valley

Since the 1950s Cincinnati has been the "hub" of nuclear developments in the Ohio River Valley.  At the beginning of the Cold War, state and local political leaders were eager  to acquire government contracts, having little awareness of the dangers of radioactive materials.  In the 1950s the New York Times referred to the region as "Atom Valley."

At the present time six locations which were involved in nuclear weapons production in the early years are responding to the radioactive and chemical contamination of the land and water. Two of the sites are being considered as possible locations for new nuclear installations, which would bring the threat of future contamination.  This book tells the stories of the six sites.

3.  Hill of Secrets:  Mound Laboratory, Miamisburg, Ohio

Mound was an early research laboratory outside of Dayton which produced polonium for the first atomic bombs, and later became a center for various kinds of nuclear research involving tritium, uranium, plutonium and thorium. It created the plutonium batteries which for fifty years were used to power spacecraft.  Mound closed in 1993 and a "fast-track" cleanup made parts of the original site available for commercial development.  Former workers and residents, many with health problems, are continuing to have difficulty acquiring plant records to verify how much radiation they were exposed to.
Much of the work Mound did in the early years is still classified.

4.  The Hidden Plutonium: Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Paducah, Kentucky

The plant at Paducah used a gaseous diffusion method to produce low-level enriched uranium for nuclear power plants and nuclear warheads.  Careless operation of the plant resulted in  radioactive and chemical contamination of the ecosystem.  The generation of electricity to operate the gaseous diffusion cascades also resulted in the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions.  In 1999 it was revealed that workers at Paducah had not been told that some of the uranium they were working with was "reprocessed" and contaminated with plutonium and other transuranic elements, nor had they been protected against exposure.  At the present time Paducah is the only uranium enrichment plant still operating in the United States.  Though it is due to close some time within the next five years, local officials have received funds to explore the possibility of building a new nuclear plant on site, which would bring the danger of new contamination.

5.  Future of Uncertainty: Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Piketon, Ohio

The gaseous diffusion plant at Piketon, Ohio on the Scioto River north of Portsmouth received the low-enriched (3-5%) uranium from Paducah, and until 199l enriched it further (up to 97%) to make it usable in nuclear weapons and nuclear submarines.  Like Paducah, the plant at Piketon left radioactive--and particularly extensive chemical contamination-- of the land and water, and workers with multiple health problems.  Though the old gaseous diffusion operation is now closed, the privately-owned United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) has been planning for many years to open a new enrichment plant at Piketon using a centrifuge model.  Its plans, however, are encountering many technical and financial difficulties.  It's also possible, that Piketon, like Paducah, could be chosen to be the site of a new reprocessing plant or a waste disposal site, under the GNEP of the Bush Administration.  Rumors that Piketon will become a 'temporary' storage dump for high level waste, because of continuing problems with Yucca Mountain, are alarming local residents a great deal.

6.  The Uranium Leak: Feed Materials Production Plant, Fernald, Ohio

The Fernald plant north of Cincinnati produced uranium ingots for the reactors at Hanford and Savannah River which created plutonium for warheads. It made national headlines in 1984 when it was revealed that for forty years tons of uranium emissions had been released into the atmosphere, inhaled by workers and nearby residents  The land and the underlying aquifer were also contaminated.  Fernald is now closed and part of its land has been converted to a nature preserve, but 80% of its waste remains in containment facilities on site, which will have to be monitored for billions of years.

7.  Tritium in the Maple Trees: Maxey Flats Low-Level Disposal Site, Maxey Flats, Kentucky

Maxey Flats was a private nuclear waste storage facility located in eastern Kentucky.  When it opened in the 1960s it was initially to be a depository for low-level waste from commercial, medical, and research facilities, but government and/or management decisions allowed it to become a storage facility for high-level waste from nuclear power and nuclear weapons production sites.  It was closed in 1977 when it was revealed that high levels of contamination, including plutonium and tritium, were already in the water and the ecosystem.  The waste could not be removed from the site, and is presently contained and heavily monitored.  The hill of waste there, like the waste at Fernald, will essentially have to be monitored forever.

8.  The Littered Battleground: Jefferson Proving Ground, Southeastern Indiana

Jefferson Proving Ground near Madison, Indiana opened in 1941 to test army munitions, but became part of the nuclear history of the region in the 1980s when it began to test projectiles made from depleted uranium.  It closed in 1989 and part of the site was turned into a national wildlife refuge. Because of unexploded ordinances in the other part of the site, however, the Army says that it cannot remove the depleted uranium and, despite  local objections, wishes to leave and end environmental testing and monitoring.

9.  Conclusion: The Hidden Danger

Though the six sites in the Ohio River Valley are all in various stages of remediation, there are still questions as to how successful the cleanups have been and how well the sites will be monitored in the future.  There are also questions as the role the sites may play if Bush Administration plans for a nuclear revival continue.  The closing of the EPA libraries to public access may make future independent investigations into the effects of the contamination difficult.   An atmosphere of secrecy now surrounds the government's nuclear plans just as it did in the 1950s when these plants were first built.

10.  Appendices

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Glossary of Terms

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