Ohio's Former Uranium Plant Transformed into $4.4 Billion Wetland Preserve

Located northwest of Cincinnati, the Fernald site served as the first link in America’s nuclear weapons chain until production stopped in 1989. A comprehensive remediation program then removed over 1 million tons of contaminated material, dismantled 323 buildings, and treated a large uranium plume in the aquifer, costing $4.4 billion and concluding in 2006. The cleanup, described at the time as one of the nation’s largest, cleared the way for ecological restoration, establishing wetlands, prairie grasses and forest that now support wildlife.

The Fernald Preserve features walking paths and a Visitors Center, opened in 2008, which educates the public about the site's industrial past and its earlier Native American use. The Center incorporates sustainable design, including a ground-source heat pump and a bio-wetland for wastewater treatment, and aligns with the US Green Building Council’s LEED standards. Solar alignment on solstices links the building’s architecture to the land’s historical narrative.