In 1942, a magnesium processing facility was built at the Luckey Site on U.S. government land. National Lead operated the facility for the U.S. government during World War II until 1945. In 1949, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) built a beryllium production facility at the site where Brush Beryllium Company (later Brush Wellman) produced beryllium oxide, beryllium hydroxide, and beryllium pebbles. Beryl ore is a natural product of the earth and may be excavated with rocks containing varying concentrations of radium-226, thorium-230 and uranium. The chemical processes to extract beryllium also separates other elements, including radium, thorium and uranium. This resulted in products with more concentrated beryllium, and incidentally generated waste streams with enhanced concentrations of radium, thorium and uranium. The products were then shipped to other facilities for further processing.