The production process at the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center begins at Plant 1, also known as the Sampling Plant. The principal function of the Sampling Plant was to obtain representative samples of the large quantities of incoming ore concentrates. This plant was divided into two main processing lines, one for Q-11 and one for INX. Q-11 was the term used to refer to radium bearing ores primarily mined in the Belgian Congo while INX was a non-radium concentrate. The problem with handling radium bearing ores was that one of radium's daughter particles is radon: an invisible radioactive gas.