The lakeside grounds of a former nuclear plant are safe for any kind of public use, including housing or recreation, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday.

The roughly 435-acre property once home to the Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant falls below the allowable radiation dosage, the commission said.

'Our goal was to ensure that the property was well below the very strict standards established by regulations,' said Kurt Haas, general manager of the site, on the northwestern shore of Michigan's lower peninsula. 'This beautiful piece of property is ready to be enjoyed by those who come after us.'

The plant operated for 35 years ending in 1997 and was dismantled. Site restoration was finished last year. Consumers Energy, a subsidiary of CMS Energy Corp., operated the plant and owns the land.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources last fall proposed buying the site, which includes mature woodlands and 1.5 miles of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline, and converting it into a state park or recreation area. The price was expected to be around $20 million.

Opponents, contending the soil was still contaminated, attacked the plan, and the DNR withdrew the proposal.

Critics also said the property was unsuitable because highly radioactive waste fuel will be stored nearby until it is shipped to a national storage facility, which has yet to be built. A 100-acre buffer zone separates the concrete casks holding the waste from the larger property.

DNR resource management deputy Mindy Koch said last month that the DNR considered the land safe and still wanted to buy it but must refine its plan.

The Michigan Environmental Council, which fought the purchase, said the nuclear commission's seal of approval was based partly on data supplied by Consumers Energy or its contractors.

'If the state is still going to pursue the purchase of this land, we would continue to press for independent third-party assessment of its environmental condition,' spokesman Hugh McDiarmid Jr. said.

The regulatory commission required that Consumers maintain $44.4 million in liability insurance, something McDiarmid called a are d flag.'

The insurance was required for the waste storage, company spokesman Tim Petrosky said. 'It is not in any way related to the unrestricted property,' he said.

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