Weapons to Wildlife

The Rocky Mountain News has an article this morning talking about the final stages of the cleanup at Rocky Flats.  Kaiser-Hill will declare physical completion any day now, beginning the process of inspections by the DOE and the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.  When I started working there in 1998, there were nearly 800 buildings still standing along with all of the support infrastructure of a small city, and now the site has returned to the prairie from which it was built.  By the time I left in August of this year, there were only 6 buildings left and the vast majority of the site had been returned to prairie.  With the closure, Rocky Flats will carry the distinction of being the first nuclear weapons facility in the world to be completely cleaned up and demolished.  Read more in today’s Rocky Mountain News.

Update: The Denver Post is reporting that Kaiser-Hill has declared physical completion of the Rocky Flats cleanup today.  At this point the DOE has 90 days to formally accept the project and ask Kaiser-Hill to address any concerns.