Florida
Covered Nuclear Facilities in Florida
If you worked at these facilities during these times, you are covered under the EEOICPA Special Exposure Cohort Facilities.
Pinellas Plant
In 1957, the AEC purchased the Pinellas Plant from General Electric. During operations, the plant manufactured precisely timed neutron generators used to initiate nuclear explosions. As older nuclear weapons were removed from the national stockpile, the accelerator-type neutron generators produced at Pinellas gradually replaced polonium-beryllium initiators manufactured at the Mound site. Pinellas also fabricated other electronic and mechanical nuclear weapons components, including neutron detectors, lightning-arrestor connectors, specialty capacitors and switches, crystal resonators, and optoelectronic devices.
In September 1994, Pinellas stopped producing weapons-related components, and its mission changed to environmental restoration of the facility. Production work was transferred to the Kansas City, Missouri, plant and Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
During the periods that DOE performed remediation, organic compounds (primarily chlorinated ethenes) in drums and concentrated in soil were removed from onsite areas through excavation and use of large-diameter auguring. The areas were then backfilled with clean material. This work removed the sources of ground water contaminants. No radioactive material was found.
Throughout the course of its operations, the potential for beryllium exposure existed at this site due to beryllium use, residual contamination, and decontamination activities.