Naturita Disposal Cell, Colorado

A disposal cell for 800,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and building debris from a uranium mill site 15 miles away in Uravan. The mill operated from the 1930s to 1963. In 1942, the mill became one of two in the USA used to produce uranium for the Manhattan Project. Material was moved here between 1993 and 1997, as part of an extensive clean-up of the mill site and its tailings. This disposal cell is 700 feet long, covers 10 acres, and was completed in 1999. It is in an former sandstone quarry, on land above the former townsite of Uravan, which was evacuated and demolished due to contamination following uranium mining there by the Umetco Company.