Three Mile Smile

Rolling Ohio hills, three acres of land where we could raise dogs, cats, and ponies. Sounds ideal doesn’t it?

Except Fernald Feed Materials Production Center, which was operated by the DoE,  hid among the small towns nearby. The plant had been running since 1951 or so, but few people in Cincinnati knew where it was or what it did. The site produced uranium and thorium at the site.

So we moved in around 1967, we had no idea of the problems with our “neighbor.” The plant was far from safe in its processes. Uranium dust spread after being released into the atmosphere. But that wasn’t enough. Other chemicals were released or allowed to soak into the ground. The Great Miami Aquifer, a site that could store over one trillion gallons of water, was found to be tainted by Fernald.

In 1984, a whistleblower shared that extent of the releases, which totaled into the millions of dollars. Interestingly, a single worker, speculated to be the whistleblower, was killed at the site; no arrests were ever made. Silkwood premiered around the same time, making the incident all the more suspect.

The site was added to the superfund, the money set aside to take care of these nuclear messes. After $4.4 billion dollars and 31 million pounds of uranium, the site was declared clean.

Not a surprise, but many of the residents passed away from cancer and other diseases associated with uranium exposure. Those who lived near the site, including yours truly, were given a monitoring program, where we received frequent tests and scans to ensure that we had not been contaminated by the chemicals. It was discontinued a few years ago although they held a seminar recently on the results of their testing – as if my neighbors could be put into a barchart.

So when Michael Bracken invited me to participate in Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith, “Three Mile Smile” seemed to be fitting story. While I’ve written several autobiographical stories featuring a crime-solving me lately**, this one felt like it should be told from another’s point of view, but with the same concerns about nuclear processing in local communities.

I hope you enjoy it.

 

** The next story in that series, “Boogie Shoes” will appear in the March/April 2025 issue of AHMM.