Grand Junction Project Site, Colorado

This Department of Energy (DOE) uranium mill and laboratory was originally founded as a source of uranium for the Manhattan Project. It later became the center of the government-initiated uranium mining boom of the 1940s and 1950s, propelled by the Defense Department's continuing need for fuel for nuclear bombs. Located on 54 acres on the Gunnison River, the site once contained several laboratory buildings and equipment sheds, which were either demolished or decontaminated by the DOE, once formal remediation efforts began in 1989. In 2001, the DOE transferred around 46 acres of the now decontaminated site to the Riverview Technology Corporation, a municipal business development consortium. Later that same year, the remaining 8 acres were transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve.