Welcome to A People's Atlas of Nuclear Colorado
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Navigating the Atlas
You may browse the Atlas by following the curated "paths" of information and interpretation provided by the editors. These paths roughly track the movement of radioactive materials from the earth, into weapons or energy sources, and then into unmanageable waste—along with the environmental, social, technical, and ethical ramifications of these processes. In addition to the stages of the production process, you may view in sequence the positivist, technocratic version of this story, or the often hidden or repressed shadow side to the industrial processing of nuclear materials.
Using the buttons on the left, you may also browse the Atlas's artworks and scholarly essays, access geolocated material on a map, and learn more about contributors to the project.
If you would like to contribute materials to the Atlas, please reach out to the editors: Sarah Kanouse (s.kanouse at northeastern.edu) and Shiloh Krupar (srk34 at georgetown.edu).
Cover Image by Shanna Merola, "An Invisible Yet Highly Energetic Form of Light," from Nuclear Winter.
Atlas design by Byse.
Funded by grants from Georgetown University and Northeastern University. Initial release September 2021.
Using the buttons on the left, you may also browse the Atlas's artworks and scholarly essays, access geolocated material on a map, and learn more about contributors to the project.
If you would like to contribute materials to the Atlas, please reach out to the editors: Sarah Kanouse (s.kanouse at northeastern.edu) and Shiloh Krupar (srk34 at georgetown.edu).
Cover Image by Shanna Merola, "An Invisible Yet Highly Energetic Form of Light," from Nuclear Winter.
Atlas design by Byse.
Funded by grants from Georgetown University and Northeastern University. Initial release September 2021.
Center for Land Use Interpretation, Rifle Disposal Cell, May 17, 2012, CLUI Land Use Database
Site
Rifle Disposal Site
The Bureau of Land Management transferred 205 acres of land in the remote Estes Gulch to the Department of Energy (DOE) in 1991 for the construction of a 71-acre disposal cell. Known as the Rifle Disposal Site, the facility would serve to contain the uranium and vanadium tailings from the two Rifle Processing Sites: the "old," which operated from 1924 to 1932 and from 1942 to 1958, and the "new," which Part of the mill at the New Rifle Site operated until 1985 to process vanadium solutions but reportedly did not produce tailings.processed uranium ore and generated mill tailings from 1958 to 1973.
Milling-related contaminants from the Old Site, such as selenium, uranium, vanadium, and from the New Site, such as arsenic, molybdenum, nitrate, selenium, uranium, and vanadium, seeped into the Colorado River alluvium aquifer and contaminated the river’s water supply. After the passing of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act in 1978, the Department of Energy commenced an institutional controls initiative in concert with the State of Colorado and its Department of Public Health and Environment. This effort restricted access, land ownership and transfer rights, and monitored contamination levels. About 3.5 million cubic yards of contaminated materials with a total activity of 2,738 curries of radium-226 are currently contained within the triangular disposal cell, which is supposed to last 1,000 years. Though both of the processing sites are under Colorado state oversight, the disposal site receives annual check-ups by the DOE’s Legacy Management team.
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management. "Rifle, Colorado, Disposal and Processing Sites" Fact Sheet. May 2020. Accessed July 31, 2020.
Milling-related contaminants from the Old Site, such as selenium, uranium, vanadium, and from the New Site, such as arsenic, molybdenum, nitrate, selenium, uranium, and vanadium, seeped into the Colorado River alluvium aquifer and contaminated the river’s water supply. After the passing of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act in 1978, the Department of Energy commenced an institutional controls initiative in concert with the State of Colorado and its Department of Public Health and Environment. This effort restricted access, land ownership and transfer rights, and monitored contamination levels. About 3.5 million cubic yards of contaminated materials with a total activity of 2,738 curries of radium-226 are currently contained within the triangular disposal cell, which is supposed to last 1,000 years. Though both of the processing sites are under Colorado state oversight, the disposal site receives annual check-ups by the DOE’s Legacy Management team.
Sources
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management. "Rifle, Colorado, Disposal Site and Processing Sites." Accessed July 31, 2020.U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management. "Rifle, Colorado, Disposal and Processing Sites" Fact Sheet. May 2020. Accessed July 31, 2020.
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