The cleanup occurred where the plant manufactured nuclear weapons.* This area is called the Central Operable Unit, or COU. It remains a Superfund site today, with many full-time employees monitoring the buried plutonium, americium, and other toxic substances. The Department of Energy (DOE) calls it Rocky Flats Legacy Management (RFLMA "riff-la-ma") The public is often told to refer to Rocky Flats Stewardship Council website for information about Rocky Flats. While much information can be found there, the reader should be aware that this is primarily a Department of Energy funded site.

The area shown in green on the map above is now called the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. It was the buffer zone for the plant, the Peripheral Operable Unit, or POU. The DOE formerly stated the POU should remain off limits to the public, but instead it was transferred to US Fish and Wildlife in 2006 after the testing done by the DOE showed the land to be safe. There has been no testing in the past decade that proves Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge to be safe for recreation. There has been no testing of the refuge since the massive floods of 2013.

*The mayor of Arvada said, "They didn't manufacture nuclear weapons there, just the triggers." Each of the plutonium triggers is a bomb itself, comparable to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in World War II, which killed approximately 75,000 civilians.