39°17′53″N 84°41′27″W / 39.29806°N 84.69083°W
 | This article has an unclear citation style. (December 2016) |
 | This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines. (December 2016) |
The Fernald Feed Materials Production Center (commonly referred to simply as Fernald or later NLO) is a Superfund site located within Crosby Township in Hamilton County, Ohio, as well as Ross Township in Butler County, Ohio, in the United States.[1] It was a uranium processing facility located near the rural town of New Baltimore, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Cincinnati, which fabricated uranium fuel cores for the U.S. nuclear weapons production complex from 1951 to 1989. During that time, the plant produced 170,000 metric tons uranium (MTU) of metal products and 35,000 MTU of intermediate compounds, such as uranium trioxide and uranium tetrafluoride.
Fernald came under criticism in 1984 when it was learned that the plant was releasing millions of pounds of uranium dust into the atmosphere, causing major radioactive contamination of the surrounding areas.[2][3] News about the plant's operations led to the 1989 closure of nearby Fort Scott Camp, then the oldest Roman Catholic summer camp in the country.[4]
- ^ U.S. EPA. "Superfund Information Systems". Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
- ^ Noble, Kenneth (October 15, 1988). "U.S., For Decades, Let Uranium Leak at Weapon Plant". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ Grace, Beth (April 16, 1989). "Ohio Facility's 1,000 Employees Face Bleak Prospects : Death, Illness Haunt Uranium Plant Neighbors". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ Wessels, Joe (November 8, 2004). "Former Fort Scott camp to make way for development". Cincinnati Business Courier. American City Business Journals. Retrieved October 6, 2019.