48 Hours (November 17, 1988) Fernald

[Marlin]

48 Hours (November 17, 1988) Fernald

I spent 7.5 years there; it had the best social environment of any facility I have worked at. It is a wet land now with a visitors center and onsite disposal site for low level waste. There are test beds in the wetlands the local university maintains. Many of the workers are actively seeking compensation for health effects.

https://youtu.be/_aE9xBfYnos

[Mounder]

Having been at many DOE sites, Fernald always seemed to be overblown for actual hazard by the longtime workers/local media.  Sure it was loose with controls until the 80s, but so were all the other sites.   

[Marlin]

Having been at many DOE sites, Fernald always seemed to be overblown for actual hazard by the longtime workers/local media.  Sure it was loose with controls until the 80s, but so were all the other sites.   

Concur, many DOE facilities were built when uranium was only dangerous if it fell on your head. I might add that some of the contamination at Fernald was preexisting. The aquafer was a basin under the facility with a limited inlet and outlet. Not to take away from the contamination from the facility. I believe that the water treatment plant is still there removing uranium from that aquafer. The water treatment methodology had to change when it was discovered that they were stirring up toxins that settled out in the basin from upstream. A pesticide facility if I remember right. They went to injection sites around the facility to recirculate back to the extraction points on site.

[Mounder]

The water treatment plant is still operating under LM.  You don't hear about other contaminants potentially in the watershed and how much is making it in from the nearby Great Miami River (which was a toilet for ~100 years in SW Ohio).