This Day in History: 1950-11-28

Savannah River nuclear bomb production complex begins on this day in 1950 with announcements by the Atomic Energy Commission and the E.I. DuPont Co. Small towns in South Carolina along the Savannah River are bought out and residents moved away as the bomb factories are built in the 1950s. The SRP subsequently becomes one of the most toxic and dangerous places on earth, where millions of gallons of plutonium nitrate are stored in leaking containers. The challenge in the face of climate change is to stabilize and move the plutonium so that it will not be on the shoreline or underwater.