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The Manhattan Project began in 1939 in an earnest attempt to develop the nuclear power and weapons that were to protect the West and its global interests. The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), built at the conclusion of the Manhattan Project and the beginning of the Cold War was the first stop for all of the raw uranium to be enriched for the nation’s energy and weapons programs. Paducah was only one of dozens of similar sites nationwide, most top-secret, each part of this network which provided essential processing, manufacturing and services to the Nation’s nuclear program.

The Atomic Cities Research Group took on the task of proposing a hopeful future for the PGDP. Recognizing that we are not hydro geologists, economists, or decontamination specialists, but designers, what role can we play in proposing the plant’s future? Furthermore, what is the magnitude of the contamination below? What type of contamination exists? Should we try to preserve the jobs at the plant, or recreate them? What can be done to preserve the enormous structures on the site?

Faced with these and other seemingly insurmountable questions, we began to exemplify the audacity of the original Manhattan Project scientists. How were they able to maintain confidence in the face of so many daunting questions? How did they mitigate the risks involved in pursuing such speculative work – with almost unimaginable consequence? Over time we have realized that this is the territory where designers typically operate best. Not as specialists, but as generalists, we began putting together the pieces of this enormous puzzle. Over time, we began to understand some of the complex interrelationships that resulted in the site’s present condition and began to determine how they would need to change for progress to occur.