This 37-by-18-inch horizontal panorama documents the Feed Materials Production Center in Fernald, Ohio—the uranium processing facility that produced fuel for America’s nuclear weapons program while contaminating the surrounding community. The two-to-one horizontal format captures the industrial scale of nuclear materials production.

Created in 1991, the work documents one of the Department of Energy’s most problematic legacy sites. The Fernald facility operated from 1951 to 1989, processing uranium ore into metal for weapons production while releasing radioactive materials into air, water, and soil. Nearby residents developed cancers at elevated rates before the contamination was publicly acknowledged.

The facility’s benign name—“Feed Materials Production Center”—concealed its nuclear purpose, contributing to community unawareness about the hazards of nearby operations. When contamination was revealed, public outrage led to closure, cleanup, and litigation that continues to the present day.

The horizontal format captures the facility’s industrial extent, the buildings and equipment that processed radioactive materials while exposing workers and neighbors to hazards that would later require billions of dollars in remediation and compensation. The photo collage technique fragments this nuclear landscape while revealing its industrial organization.

Fernald’s cleanup demolished most structures and removed contaminated soil, transforming the site into a nature preserve. This panorama preserves documentation of facilities that no longer exist, capturing the physical evidence of nuclear weapons production that Cold War secrecy concealed from surrounding communities.