When we picture national wildlife refuges and nature preserves, most of us imagine skies full of migratory birds and vast expanses of untouched trees and wetlands. Likely, nuclear power, uranium, weapons, and chemicals don’t come to mind, but these industries are actually behind several landmark public land preserves in the U.S.
When authorities decommission nuclear, chemical, and weapons plants, the closures beg the question of what to do with the surrounding land.
Historically, the government has chosen to expend massive sums of money to clean and restore the land to turn it into wildlife refuges, and the issue has recently raised its head again in California.
Why Are Nuclear Sites Getting Shut Down?
In response to the Cold War and the perceived threat of the Soviet Union, the U.S. constructed a massive stockpile of nuclear weapons and built a large network of commercial nuclear power plants. At its peak in the 1960s, the number of warheads exceeded 30,000. And of course, it took land, resources, and staff to build these complex devices and reactors.
Over time, as the Cold War reached its denouement, the number of warheads dropped off steeply, until it reached its current stock of around 3,700. As the U.S. dropped its production of nuclear weapons, the facilities (and their hazardous materials) still remained.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is responsible for overseeing and decommissioning nuclear material sites that are no longer in use. The NRC defines decommissioning as “safely removing a facility or site from service and reducing residual radioactivity to a level” that allows for unrestricted use or restricted use.
A long list of sites are undergoing this process, including 19 reactors at 15 sites, three research and nuclear testing sites, five uranium mills, 12 sites with nuclear material (known as “complex material sites”), and three nuclear fuel sites.
As more and more former nuclear sites are decommissioned, there’s debate over what to do with the land. There’s concern over whether it is safe for humans to live in these areas. However, these factories had “buffer zones” for security. This “no man’s land” between the site and the public generally remained undeveloped, and can be a boon for wildlife.
Of course, in an ideal world, the U.S. government would not have polluted thousands of acres with nuclear material. But with the damage done, local, state, and federal governments must wrestle with the potential future of these often untouched, otherwise wild landscapes.
The AP estimates that authorities have spent $57 billion cleaning up these sites and converting their purposes from war to conservation. If you live in states like Colorado, Washington, or Nevada, there may be a nuclear site turned national monument or national wildlife refuge in your backyard.
Examples of Nuclear Sites Turned Public Land
Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge: 6 Miles From Broomfield, CO
This 5,237-acre site helps preserve a native prairie landscape that’s home to elk, deer, migratory birds, and the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, a critically threatened species. Over 10 miles of hiking and biking trails criss-cross the area. Efforts to clean it up and transform it into an open space demonstrate just how complex a task this is.
Its nuclear history dates back to 1951, when the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission began purchasing land here in order to build the Rocky Flats Plant, which produced nuclear and non-nuclear weapons, including plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. The plant operated from 1952 to 1994, with significant fires in 1957 and 1969 releasing contamination.
In 1992, its operator pled guilty to violating environmental law and was fined $18.5 million. In 1996, clean-up began, and a 2001 law made it a national wildlife refuge. Clean-up (which cost $7 billion) finished in 2005, and in 2007, the federal government awarded the state of Colorado $10 million in natural resources damages.
In 2017, the private owners paid out $375 million to 7,500 individuals whose homes lost value due to plutonium contamination. Just this month, local Congressperson Brittany Pettersen pushed for increased compensation for residents who lived near the plant and developed certain illnesses.
The refuge opened to the public in 2018, and people are still divided over its existence.
Just this month, local Congressperson Brittany Pettersen pushed for increased compensation for residents who lived near the plant and developed certain illnesses. While radiation tests from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) said that the site was safe for people to visit, in January, the Boulder County Open Space and the city of Westminster decided to implement new warning signs.
The signs read, “‘Radioactive and hazardous materials remain in the soil and ground water and may be present in airborne dust particles.’ Nearby communities and industry professionals continue to express concern about the area’s safety and its risks to human health,” a report from The Colorado Sun explained.
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge: 10 Miles From Denver, CO
The military history of this area dates back to World War II, when the U.S. Army began producing mustard gas and munitions here in 1942. The government later leased portions of the plant to private agricultural chemical companies, which led to massive impacts on the environment.
“Manufacturing and waste disposal practices used during these years resulted in extensive soil, surface water, sediment, groundwater and structures contamination, damage to trees and vegetation, and death to wildlife. Solid and liquid chemical hazardous wastes were disposed of in trenches, burn pits and pooled in open basins covering wide areas. Spills occurred in the central processing areas, storage areas, and out of chemical sewers that existed underground,” a report from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment explained.
Manufacturing of these chemicals ended in 1982, and it took until 2010 (and $2.2 billion) to fully clean up the over 600 chemicals used here. In 2004, the USFWS took over management of some of the land as part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. While the site covers 15,000 acres, only around 24 square miles is open to the public.
Fernald Preserve: 22 Miles From Cincinnati, OH
From 1951 to 1989, the Feed Materials Production Center produced weapons-grade uranium. From 1989 to 2006, the federal government spent $4.4 billion to clean up the site, an effort that covered everything but the groundwater, which remains contaminated.
The 10,50-acre site opened as the Fernald Preserve in 2007. “Soil remediation and restoration activities at the site resulted in one of the largest human-made wetland and open water habitats in Ohio,” a U.S. Department of Energy brochure explained. It’s home to more than 260 species of birds. While there are 7 miles of trail, most of the preserve has been left undeveloped.
Hanford Reach National Monument: 50 Miles From Yakima, WA
When the government was working on developing the atomic bomb during World War II, it needed a remote location with access to water and hydroelectric power to build secret nuclear reactors; it chose an undeveloped chunk of land in eastern Washington close to the Columbia River.
It was a key site in the Manhattan Project, and produced the plutonium for the bomb that the U.S. dropped in Nagasaki. For over 40 years, scientists here worked on advancing nuclear weapons.
“Large tracts of land were used as protective buffer zones for safety and security purposes and remained undisturbed. These buffer zones preserved a nationally significant biological and cultural resource setting in the Columbia Basin region, unique in that similar resources elsewhere in the Columbia Basin have been destroyed or replaced by development,” USFWS explained on its website.
By the 1980s, Congress directed the Department of Energy to work on identifying and preserving environmental resources here. Under the authority of the Antiquities Act, President Clinton established the Hanford Reach National Monument in 2000. The 196,000-acre site preserves wetlands, salmon spawning grounds, migratory birds, and important archaeological and Indigenous sites.
It took billions, however, to remediate the effects of decades of nuclear production. The Government Accountability Office called the clean-up “one of the largest and most expensive environmental cleanup projects worldwide.” It estimates that the project will end up costing $300-640 billion.
Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge: 65 Miles From Louisville, KY
From 1940 to 1995, the Jefferson Proving Ground in southern Indiana operated as a weapons facility that tested bombs and munitions, including artillery shells made with depleted uranium. In 1996, USFWS began managing the land and opened the 50,000-acre Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge in 2000.
Only about 4,000 acres, or 8%, of the site is open to the public. Some areas may contain unexploded weapons and pose dangers to the public. Roughly 1,280 acres contain shells made with uranium. From 1984 to 1994, the facility fired 220,462 pounds of this munition. Even after several rounds of clean-up, the land still contains 154,324 pounds of uranium and 1.5 million rounds of unexploded munitions.
“The presence of unexploded ordnance, the associated risk, and cost for cleanup of this material, as well as potential contamination of groundwater, would complicate remediation,” the NRC explained. Making more of the land publicly accessible would cost billions.
What’s Next in Nuclear Meets Conservation: Diablo Canyon, CA
On the Central Coast of California, close to San Luis Obispo, lies the state’s only remaining functional power plant, Diablo Canyon. The presence of the plant has caused controversy and sparked objections from environmental activists for years.
It was scheduled to close in 2025, but now will remain open until at least 2030, a decision that outraged many. The plant was allowed to stay open on the condition that its operator, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), conserve 4,000 acres of land around the plant from commercial or residential development.
In 2023, the state legislature passed a law that required the California Natural Resources Agency to develop a plan to conserve the roughly 12,000 acres of land that surround the power plant. In September 2026, the California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC) granted $42 million to The Wildlands Conservancy to purchase 2,060 acres of this land, a parcel known as Wild Cherry Canyon. PG&E owned the land via a subsidiary.
This undeveloped swath of hills and canyons lies slightly inland, close to Avila Beach, and overlooks San Luis Obispo Bay. “Wild Cherry Canyon’s coastal prairie, oak woodlands, chaparral, riparian habitat and headwater streams support a rich diversity of wildlife and strengthen ecological connectivity across the region,” a press release from the CSCC explained.
Proposed uses for the land include 5 miles of trails, and opportunities for school groups and youth organizations. Diablo Canyon reflects the complexities of the public’s feelings toward nuclear power, and its complex relationship with public land. As controversial as the plant is, its existence has also meant thousands of acres of pristine land have been left untouched.
This is the most literal example of allowing nuclear power for the sake of conservation. Its continued operation quite literally depends on protecting land and making it publicly accessible.
While $42 million is not a small sum, it pales in comparison to the billions spent to clean up and open other former nuclear sites to the public. As the NRC works to decommission 15 other nuclear power plants across the country, Diablo Canyon may provide an example for how to reimagine the lands’ future.
