The large plant that produced two-thirds of the United States’ Cold War-era plutonium no longer exists.

From 1949 to 1989, the massive plant’s job was to turn caustic liquids containing plutonium into solid plutonium “buttons,” as they were known. The finished buttons were about the size of hockey pucks and were used for America’s nuclear weapons.

Demolition started on the plant — called PFP by locals — more than 20 years ago. But as Northwest News Network has reported, it didn’t go as planned as increasingly difficult parts of the plant were demolished.

In summer 2017, plutonium contamination was detected escaping the demolition site.

Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were catching drifting particles on what looked like large metal pizza pans out near a public highway. Then more contamination was found on workers’ parked cars. Some 42 workers were even contaminated — they had ingested small amounts of plutonium.

In January 2018, the demo project was shut down by Washington state’s Department of Ecology and the EPA for more than a year, while officials worked on better ways to protect workers and the environment. Some lower risk work was allowed to continue during that time.

Poor communication was found to be contributing to the escape of contamination from the site.