The plant was located in the rural town of Fernald, which is about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Cincinnati, Ohio, and occupies 1,050 acres (425 hectares). This location was chosen because it was between the uranium ore delivery ports of New York and New Orleans, and it was accessible to the other main AEC sites. In addition, the site was close to Cincinnati's large labor force, the landscape was level making the site's construction easy, it was isolated, which provided safety and security, and it was located 30 to 50 feet above a large water aquifer, which supplied the water needed for uranium metal processing. From 1951 to 1989 Fernald converted uranium ore into metal, and then fabricated this metal into target elements for nuclear reactors. Annual production rates ranged from a high in 1960 of 10,000 metric tons to a low in 1975 of 1,230 metric tons. Refining uranium metal was a process requiring a series of chemical and metallurgical conversions that occurred in nine specialized plants at the site.