Hidden in plain sight among decades of satellite imagery is a section of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant reservation that raises a troubling question:
Was an old disposal area buried beneath the Department of Energy’s current on-site radioactive waste disposal facility?
The Department of Energy has never answered that question.
And based on publicly available aerial imagery, historical records, and expert opinion, it’s a question worth asking.
The First Clue: 1994
The earliest imagery we reviewed, dating to 1994, shows what appear to be long, evenly spaced excavated trenches or cells.
The pattern isn’t random.
Each feature is nearly identical in size and shape, laid out in organized rows much like engineered disposal cells.
A former Piketon plant engineer, after reviewing the imagery, told The Fallout Files the features appear to resemble disposal cells of some kind.
The engineer could not definitively identify their purpose from satellite imagery alone, but said the layout is consistent with engineered disposal areas.
That observation becomes more significant when placed alongside historical records.
More Than 56 Disposal Sites
This isn’t speculation pulled from thin air.
Reporting from the 1980s documented more than 56 different disposal sites scattered across the PORTS reservation.
Those historical disposal areas ranged from landfills to waste pits and other waste management locations created during decades of uranium enrichment operations.
So the existence of another disposal area on the reservation or off would not be unheard of.
Then… It Vanishes
Sometime after the 1994 imagery was captured, the entire area changes dramatically.
The distinctive rows disappear.
The ground is leveled.
The site becomes little more than a barren, featureless landscape.
Whatever existed there is no longer visible from above.
Whether those apparent cells were excavated, filled, capped, or repurposed cannot be determined from satellite imagery alone.
Activity Returns Around 2013
Nearly two decades later, something changes again.
By approximately 2013, satellite images begin showing renewed industrial activity.
Among the objects visible are what appear to be:
- Large wrapped round objects.
- Large cylindrical objects or drums.
- Additional staging activity suggesting the site had once again become an active work area.
One possibility is that some of the wrapped objects could be decommissioned gaseous diffusion converters, massive components used during uranium enrichment.
However, we cannot confirm their identity from aerial imagery alone, and DOE has not publicly identified the materials visible in these photographs.
By 2019…
The transformation appears complete.
The location now falls within the footprint of the current on-site waste disposal facility.
That leads to the central unanswered question.
The Question DOE Won’t Answer
The Fallout Files cannot confirm that the apparent 1994 features were radioactive disposal cells. Perhaps it was related to a local excavation operation.
We also cannot confirm what materials, if any, were buried there.
And we cannot confirm whether the current disposal facility was intentionally constructed over an earlier disposal area.
Those answers lie with the Department of Energy.
To date, DOE has not answered that question.
If the area was an earlier disposal site, then whatever history it contained now lies beneath today’s engineered disposal facility—effectively buried a second time beneath the current radioactive waste landfill.
Whether that happened remains unknown.
You Decide
Satellite imagery does not prove what lies underground.
It cannot reveal what was buried.
It cannot establish intent.
But it can document how a landscape changes over time.
In this case, the timeline shows:
- 1994: Features resembling engineered disposal cells are clearly visible.
- Late 1990s–2000s: Those features disappear beneath a graded landscape.
- Around 2013: Industrial activity returns with what appear to be wrapped equipment and large cylindrical objects.
- By 2019: The location becomes part of the current on-site waste disposal complex.
The evidence raises questions.
Whether those questions ever receive answers depends on whether the Department of Energy is willing to explain the history of this piece of ground.
Until then, the satellite images remain one of the few public records showing what once existed before it disappeared beneath another layer of earth.
