The Weldon Spring Site in Missouri was the location of an ordnance works during World War II and then a uranium feed materials plant during the early Cold War. Remedial activities concluded in 2001 with completion of the site’s disposal cell — a 41-acre engineered structure designed to contain the site’s waste that resulted from the cleanup. Visitors can climb to the top of the disposal cell to take in the view of the surrounding 150-acre, native prairie, or they can stay at ground level and enjoy the interpretive center and hiking and biking trails. In 2020, EPA awarded Weldon Spring Site with a National Federal Facility Excellence in Site Reuse Award in recognition of its remarkable transformation.  

The Rocky Flats Site in Colorado was once the location of a large industrial plant that manufactured nuclear weapons components during the Cold War. In Oct. 2005, DOE and its contractor completed an accelerated 10-year, $7 billion cleanup, that included the decommissioning, decontamination, demolishing, and removal of more than 800 structures, including six plutonium-processing and fabrication building complexes. Today, the former security buffer zone of the site is open to the public as the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.  

The Mound, Ohio, Site, which operated from 1948 to 2003 as part of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and later under DOE, was built to continue Dayton, Ohio, Manhattan Project work on polonium-beryllium initiators, used in early atomic weapons. The city of Miamisburg chartered the Mound Development Corporation (MDC), formerly the Miamisburg Mound Community Improvement Corporation, to transition the site for beneficial reuse as the Mound Business Park. During site cleanup, DOE supported MDC economic development efforts with grants and early transition of property.