A team of workers is using $212 million in federal stimulus money to clean up a 65-year-old, six-acre dump in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which was used by the scientists who built the world’s first atomic bomb.

It’s a delicate project since some of the things buried beneath the mess are likely to be radioactive or explosive. According to the NY Times: “the dump has become part of the $6 billion stimulus program to clean up the toxic legacy of the arms race, which is one of the biggest sources of direct federal contracts in the $787 billion stimulus act.”

The Recovery Act is designed to jumpstart the economy and creating or save jobs. “Nearly 73,000 people have applied for stimulus jobs cleaning up nuclear sites since the program was announced, the Department of Energy says, and more than 10,800 positions have been saved or created with the money.” That’s good news!

Officials say that once the job is done in Los Alamos, the area will be clean enough for homes to be built on it.

(Photo courtesy of the Los Alamos National Lab website)