DENVER — A unique wildlife refuge on the site of a former nuclear weapons plant in Colorado is opening its gates on Saturday, after a confusing day when officials first said they would not open the refuge and then said they would. The opening of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, where the U.S. government made plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs, has been in the works for months, surviving court challenges and protests. The plutonium plant was cleaned up at a cost of $7 billion, but it remains off-limits to the public. The 8-square-mile (21-kilometre) buffer zone surrounding the manufacturing site was turned over to the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service for a refuge. Falcons, songbirds, bears, elk and the threatened Preble’s meadow jumping mouse all live there or pass through, the Fish and Wildlife Service says.

Source: National Post September 14, 2018 23:08 UTC