Trojan Park is a park located in Columbia County, Oregon, 42 miles north of Portland, Oregon, and 5 miles south of Rainier, Oregon. It is located on US Highway 30, the main road between Portland and Astoria, Oregon.
According to Portland General Electric:
Trojan Park is a delightful day-use park with facilities for picnicking, hiking, biking, fishing, paddling and even disc golf PGE. The 75-acre park includes a stocked lake, multi-use trails and a large sports playing field.
In my research about parks, one thing that I have found interesting is that in Oregon,
federal,
state and
local park facilities can often be in the same area, and have the same features. But this is none of these, this is a
public park run by a
private company. Why is an electrical utility company spending so much money to give us a delightful
disc golf experience?
The park, near the site of the former Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, has individual picnic tables as well as facilities for groups: two shelter complexes, each with two reservable sections.
After the
decommissioning of the
Trojan Nuclear Power Plant,
Portland General Electric had a large block of land around the former plant, and decided to turn it into a
day use park. Despite some major problems with the Trojan Nuclear plant while it was operating, the land around it is safe from contamination, and according to the state of Oregon,
Trojan was built on an industrial site, and is now safe again for any type of use, including industrial, commercial, or even residential​.
Even though the area might theoretically be safe, most people would probably not be too eager to build homes directly around the former grounds of a nuclear plant. While the area has probably returned to "background levels" of radioactivity, there are still, about 1000 feet from the park, 34 concrete silos full of spent
nuclear fuel. As such, turning the grounds into a park makes sense, since people can use it, without having to depend on it.
And while going for a picnic close to a closed nuclear power plant might seem somewhat anxiety-inducing, statistically speaking, the picnic is probably much more dangerous for reasons of bee stings, poison ivy, and food poisoning from bad tuna fish sandwiches, than it is from a freak accident that would break open one of the casks.
I haven't been here, but now that I know it is here, if I am ever travelling up Highway 30, I might want to stop and visit.
https://portlandgeneral.com/about/parks-campgrounds/trojan-park
https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/Trojan-Site.aspx