Covered Department of Energy facilities

Select a state

Choose any highlighted state on the map, or type its name above, to see the facilities covered there. Every facility is also listed further down this page.

Colorado

• Rocky Flats Plant

  Golden, CO · 1952–1989

  Rocky Flats machined plutonium pits — the cores of nuclear weapons — outside Denver. Two major fires and chronic contamination exposed workers to plutonium in ways that were not disclosed at the time.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Rocky Flats has an approved Special Exposure Cohort class covering employees who worked at least 250 aggregate days during defined covered periods.

Idaho

• Idaho National Laboratory

  Idaho Falls, ID · 1949–present

  Idaho built and tested more nuclear reactors than anywhere on earth, and reprocessed spent fuel for decades. Site workers handled irradiated fuel and reactor components across a vast desert complex.

  Special Exposure Cohort: The Argonne National Laboratory-West area of the Idaho site has an approved Special Exposure Cohort class covering employees who worked there from April 10, 1951, through December 31, 1957, for at least 250 aggregate work days. Petitions covering other Idaho National Laboratory work areas and later periods are still under NIOSH evaluation and are not yet approved — this site needs case-by-case review more than most.

Kentucky

• Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant

  Paducah, KY · 1952–2013

  Paducah enriched uranium for reactors and weapons in western Kentucky. Workers there were exposed to recycled reactor uranium contaminated with plutonium and neptunium — a fact not disclosed to them for decades.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Paducah has approved Special Exposure Cohort classes covering defined groups of employees and time periods.

Nevada

• Nevada Test Site

  Mercury, NV · 1951–present

  Over 900 nuclear tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site. The workers who drilled the shafts, staged the devices, and re-entered ground zero afterward absorbed doses that were often poorly recorded.

  Special Exposure Cohort: The Nevada Test Site has approved Special Exposure Cohort classes covering defined employee groups and time periods.

New Mexico

• Los Alamos National Laboratory

  Los Alamos, NM · 1943–present

  Los Alamos designed the first nuclear weapons and has remained a primary weapons laboratory ever since. Technicians, machinists, and maintenance workers — not just scientists — carried the heaviest exposures.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Los Alamos has approved Special Exposure Cohort classes covering certain employees during defined periods.

Ohio

• Fernald Feed Materials Production Center

  Fernald, OH · 1951–1989

  For nearly four decades, Fernald processed uranium ore into the metal feed used across the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. Thousands of Ohio workers handled uranium daily, often with limited protection and without being told what they were breathing.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Fernald has an approved Special Exposure Cohort class covering certain employees who worked at the site for at least 250 aggregate days during covered periods.

• Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

  Piketon, OH · 1954–2001

  Portsmouth enriched uranium in southern Ohio for nearly fifty years. Like Paducah, it processed recycled reactor uranium carrying transuranic contamination.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Portsmouth has approved Special Exposure Cohort classes covering defined employee groups and covered periods.

• Mound Plant

  Miamisburg, OH · 1948–2003

  Mound handled polonium, plutonium-238, and tritium for weapons components and space power sources in southwest Ohio — small quantities of extraordinarily hazardous material, handled by hand.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Mound has approved Special Exposure Cohort classes covering defined employee groups and time periods.

South Carolina

• Savannah River Site

  Aiken, SC · 1951–present

  The Savannah River Site produced tritium and plutonium for the weapons program across five reactors. It has employed workers from South Carolina and Georgia for over seventy years.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Savannah River Site has an approved Special Exposure Cohort class covering employees who worked at the site from January 1, 1953, through September 30, 1972.

Tennessee

• Oak Ridge Reservation (Y-12, K-25, X-10)

  Oak Ridge, TN · 1943–present

  Oak Ridge was built in secret to enrich uranium for the Manhattan Project and grew into three major plants. Tens of thousands of East Tennessee workers passed through Y-12, K-25, and X-10 over eight decades.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Y-12 and K-25 both have approved Special Exposure Cohort classes covering defined employee groups and time periods.

Texas

• Pantex Plant

  Amarillo, TX · 1951–present

  Pantex is where nuclear weapons are assembled and dismantled. Technicians in the Texas Panhandle worked hands-on with plutonium pits, depleted uranium, and high explosives.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Pantex has an approved Special Exposure Cohort class covering employees who worked at the site from January 1, 1951, through December 31, 1957, for at least 250 aggregate work days.

Washington

• Hanford Site

  Richland, WA · 1943–present (cleanup)

  Hanford produced the plutonium for the first atomic bomb and much of the Cold War arsenal. It remains one of the most contaminated sites in the country, and generations of Tri-Cities families worked there.

  Special Exposure Cohort: Multiple Special Exposure Cohort classes have been approved for Hanford workers across several covered time periods.