DOE Office of Legacy Management’s visitor and interpretive centers are open to the public. They provide valuable information to communities about the site’s history, cleanup, and our long-term stewardship to ensure human health and the environment remain protected.
DOE Office of Legacy Management Operated Centers
The Fernald Preserve Visitors Center is a 10,000-square-foot, platinum-certified U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design facility that celebrates the rich and varied history of the Fernald site. A series of exhibits place the site’s uranium production and environmental cleanup eras into a broad historical perspective, acknowledging Native American occupation, European settlement, agricultural production, ecological restoration and today’s legacy management mission.
The Atomic Legacy Cabin is an interpretive center located at the DOE Grand Junction, Colorado, office. The cabin was once the epicenter of the nationwide search for uranium that was started by the Manhattan Project and later escalated during the Cold War. Visitors can learn about the uranium history of the Colorado Plateau and LM’s continuing mission in the southwestern United States.
The Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center presents a window to the past and DOE’s commitment to the future through long-term surveillance and maintenance of the Weldon Spring Site and a strong community partnership. Adjacent to the center is the 75-foot-high Weldon Spring disposal cell with a viewing platform that offers a panoramic view of St. Charles County and the surrounding Howell Prairie.
Non-Federally Operated Centers
The Mound Cold War Discovery Center is a collaboration between the Mound Science and Energy Museum Association, a non-profit organization that was established to collect, preserve, and make publicly accessible the heritage of the Mound Laboratory and Dayton History, a private non-profit (501c3) organization established to preserve, share, and celebrate the history of the Dayton, Ohio, region. Visitors to the center can learn about the top-secret, scientific work of the Mound Laboratory that revolutionized Cold War, Nuclear Age, and Space Race history; the subsequent environmental cleanup; and today’s ongoing legacy management.
Non-LM, Federally-Operated Centers
The Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) is managed through a collaborative partnership by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to preserve, interpret, and facilitate access to key historical resources associated with the Manhattan Project. The park incorporates three of the most significant Manhattan Project sites: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington.
The various interpretive centers associated with the park are operated by several different organizations. LM has a coordinating role for the park within DOE.
Partners
The Savannah River Site (SRS) Museum is a product of the SRS Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of SRS. Located in downtown Aiken, South Carolina, the SRS Museum makes publicly accessible the history of SRS in an engaging, interactive way. Visitors to the museum will discover how the site’s arrival affected life before the plant, how the Cold War and the nuclear arms race impacted the region, the role of SRS in national security, the ecological impact of SRS on the Central Savannah River Area, and the site’s current cleanup efforts.