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The Fernald Feed Materials Production Center (commonly referred to simply as Fernald or later NLO) is a Superfund site located within Crosby Township in Hamilton County, Ohio, as well as Ross Township in Butler County, Ohio. It was a uranium processing facility located near the rural town of Fernald, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Cincinnati, which fabricated uranium fuel cores for the U.S. nuclear weapons production complex from 1951 to 1989. During that time, the plant produced 170,000 metric tons uranium (MTU) of metal products and 35,000 MTU of intermediate compounds, such as uranium trioxide and uranium tetrafluoride. Fernald would gain notoriety by 1984 when it was learned that the plant was releasing millions of pounds of uranium dust into the atmosphere, causing major radioactive contamination of the surrounding areas. That same year, employee Dave Bocks, a 39-year-old pipefitter, disappeared during the facility's graveyard shift and was later reported missing. Eventually, his remains were discovered inside a uranium processing furnace located in Plant 6; a sudden 28-degree drop in furnace temperature (which was kept at a constant 1300 degrees F) had been recorded at 5:15 AM during the night of Bocks' disappearance.〔http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGemW-pKCZw&feature=relmfu〕 After the investigations, insufficient evidence was found relating to the death and the official ruling was that no foul play was involved. Some, however, including Bocks' family, have believed that he was murdered by one or more coworkers who suspected him of being a whistleblower in the 1984 nuclear emissions scandal. Other theories included an industrial accident or suicide. It is believed that Bocks was alive when he entered the furnace. The case was profiled on the ''Unsolved Mysteries'' television show during the early 1990s. ==History== In 1948 the Atomic Energy Commission, predecessor to the U.S. Department of Energy, established “a large scale integrated facility for the production of fabricated uranium fuel cores by chemical and metallurgical techniques." The plant was known as the Feed Materials Production Center since the uranium fuel cores it produced were the 'feed' for the AEC's plutonium production reactors. 〔 National Lead Company of Ohio, Contract Operator of the Feed Materials Production Center for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The Feed Materials Production Center. NCLO-950. n. d. 〕 These nuclear reactors were located at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and at Hanford in the state of Washington. The uranium metal produced was in the form of derbies, ingots, billets and fuel cores.〔 The FMPC also served as the country's central repository for another radioactive metal, thorium. The plant was located in the rural town of Fernald, which is about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Cincinnati, Ohio, and occupies 1,050 acres (425 hectares). This location was chosen because it was between the uranium ore delivery ports of New York and New Orleans, and it was accessible to the other main AEC sites. In addition, the site was close to Cincinnati's large labor force, the landscape was level making the site's construction easy, it was isolated, which provided safety and security, and it was located 30 to 50 feet above a large water aquifer, which supplied the water needed for uranium metal processing. From 1951 to 1989 Fernald converted uranium ore into metal, and then fabricated this metal into target elements for nuclear reactors. Annual production rates ranged from a high in 1960 of 10,000 metric tons to a low in 1975 of 1,230 metric tons.2 Refining uranium metal was a process requiring a series of chemical and metallurgical conversions that occurred in nine specialized plants at the site. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fernald Feed Materials Production Center」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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