Uranium Mines Grow Green
December 25, 2006
The landscape near the eastern city of Ronneburg was ravaged by 40 years of uranium mining. Hundreds of radioactive slag heaps dotted the countryside in the former communist East German states of Thuringia and Saxony. A mountain of contaminated slag loomed over the town of Ronneburg.
Environmentalists called it Germany's "greatest ever environmental catastrophe."
Yet the future of the area looks downright rosy. The German government undertook a huge clean-up effort lasting 15 years and costing 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion.) Slag heaps were leveled and covered with soil and grass. Environmental workers closed off or reclaimed 300 mine shafts, tunnels and contaminated waste ponds.
Garden showcase
Germany now plans to hold the floral show known as BUGA there. During its six-month run that starts in April 2007, organizers expect 1.5 million visitors.
The show's organizers say a magnificent job has been done to reclaim the hazardous mining areas that once posed a serious health risk. In recent years, planners have transformed a 450,000-square-meter area into a paradise of scented fields of herbs, meadows, roses, prairie bush and picturesque tree gardens.
The area's floral displays, gardens and landscapes, as well as its long wooden bridge, are expected to be big attractions, a BUGA spokesperson said. Visitors will also be able to view reclaimed mining areas, which cover a third of the garden show area.
Uranium mining legacy
An information center will explain the region's uranium mining history, the environmental consequences and the efforts taken to restore the area.
The Wismut AG mining operation was originally run by the Soviet Union and eventually became a joint venture with East Germany. It's believed that the first Soviet atomic bomb, exploded in 1949, was made of Wismut uranium.
Hundreds of thousands of men were forced to work in the uranium mines, which were run as a military operation. At its peak, around 1960, Wismut employed 150,000 men. By the late 1980s, both the output and the workforce had fallen.
The mines blighted an area of approximately 1,000 square kilometers in the then East Germany. Uranium mining in the area was halted after reunification in 1990.