HANFORD’S HISTORIC B REACTOR
Located on the U.S. Department of Energy’s
Hanford Reservation
B Reactor is a Major Contributor to
World History, Science,
Technology & Engineering
Construction on Hanford's historic B Reactor began in October 1943. Enrico Fermi and a team of engineers started the reactor only 11 months later on the evening of September26, 1944. The B Reactor operated until February 1968, except for a two-year period beginning in March 1946.
B Reactor was part of the largest scientific, engineering and construction
project ever–the Manhattan Project, a Corps of Engineers project organized in
1942 by the Federal government to develop a nuclear weapon.
Built in less than a
year, B Reactor was the world’s first full production-scale nuclear
reactor. It operated for over 25 years, playing a key role in ending World
War II (WWII) and the Cold War.
B Reactor produced the plutonium for the first full-scale nuclear weapons test
at the Alamogordo Air Base in New Mexico on July 16,1945, and for the Nagasaki
weapon dropped on August 9, 1945.
Background
Completed in September 1944, B Reactor was the world's first large-scale nuclear reactor of any kind. The need for labor turned WWII Hanford into an atomic boom town, with the population reaching 51,000 by the summer of 1944.
Although somewhat similar to the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge, Tenn., in terms of loading and unloading fuel, the B Reactor was built on a much larger scale using water rather than air as a coolant. Water cooling caused a huge difference in operations. Whereas the X-10 had an initial design output of 1,000 kilowatts, B Reactor was designed to operate at 250,000 kilowatts.
Consisting of a 28 x 36 foot, 1,200-ton pile of graphite blocks, the B Reactor was penetrated horizontally by 2,004 aluminum tubes. More than 200 tons of uranium slugs the size of rolls of quarters and sealed in aluminum cans went into the tubes. Cooling water from the Columbia River, which first had to be treated, was pumped through the aluminum tubes around the uranium slugs initially at a rate of 35,000 gallons per minute, and later at 70,000 gallons per minute!
The B Reactor was one of three reactors--along with D and F Reactors--built about six miles apart on the south bank of the Columbia River in WWII. Each reactor had its own auxiliary facilities that included a river pump house, large storage and settling basins, a filtration plant, huge motor-driven pumps for delivering water to the face of the pile, and facilities for emergency cooling in case of a power failure. The three reactors produced plutonium for the Trinity device (the Nagasaki weapon), and Cold War weapons. Later, six more plutonium production reactors eventually were built at Hanford.
Additional B Reactor Facts
Built during WWII - in secret and in a hurry!
Played a key role in ending the war (defeating fascism and imperialism)
Operated for 25 years (except for a brief shutdown 1946-1948)
Influenced every major Cold War development end issue until 1968 closure.
Korean War, early "Space Race," development of nuclear Navy, Cuban Missile Crisis and other events.
B Reactor essentially "super-sized" the U.S. as a nation.
America was isolationist before WWII, but emerged from WWII as a nuclear power and world leader.
B Reactor's product changed the global balance of power for all time since then.
Visiting Hanford's Historic B Reactor
Since 2001, over 250 groups with more than 6,000 visitors, have toured the B Reactor.
Currently, B Reactor is owned and maintained
by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Richland Operations Office.
DOE conducts periodic, escorted tours of B Reactor
for the general public.
Those public tours of B Reactor are
extremely popular--always filling up within minutes or even seconds of
registration opening up. More than $3 million dollars has been spent upgrading
the reactor building for safety and comfort of visitors.
For more information on Public Tours of B Reactor, please visit the DOE Richland Operations Office website www.hanford.gov and click on "Site Tours."
The future of B Reactor is in
doubt... 
Demolish and Cocoon:
B Reactor is currently included in the cleanup of the portion of the Hanford
Site along the Columbia River and is scheduled to be continued public access as an interpreted historical
exhibit.
Cocooning includes removing of all interior equipment, demolishing all
peripheral structures adjoining the concrete shield wall around the reactor
core reducing the building’s footprint dramatically, sealing all
remaining openings in the shield wall, installing a 75-year roof, and
eliminating access by welding the remaining door shut.
OR...?
Preserve B Reactor for Future Generations:
Save a technical marvel that played a major role in world history.
Recognize the people who completed one of the world’s largest and most complex projects ever!
Educate and Interpret the significance and lessons learned from Hanford and the Manhattan Project.
Safeguard a premier science and engineering landmark and to support heritage tourism in the Pacific Northwest.
Affirm B Reactor’s national recognition as an engineering and historic landmark.
B Reactor Awards and Designations
In 1968, B Reactor was declared a
Civil Engineering Landmark. It has won several other awards. Today, its
nomination as a national Historic Landmark--the National Park Service's highest
historic designation--is pending.
National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark (1976)
National Register of Historic Places (1992)
Nuclear Historic Landmark (1993)
National Civil Engineering Landmark (1994)
National Historic Landmark (pending)
Recognition as a National Historic Landmark is Pending
The Seattle Office of the U.S. National Park Service has prepared a nomination
application designating B Reactor as a National Historic Landmark.
The application is scheduled to be submitted to the nominating
subcommittee of the National Park System Advisory Board for National Historic
Landmark Designation in spring 2007 and to the full Advisory Board in the
summer of 2007. The nomination will
then be forwarded to the Secretary of Interior to officially designate B Reactor
as a National Historic Landmark.
Current initiatives to preserve B reactor for public access
President Bush Authorizes Manhattan Project Sites
Special Resources Study
In October 2004, President Bush signed Public Law 108-340 directing the
Secretary of the Interior, in conjunction with the Department of Energy (DOE),
to have the National Park Service (NPS) conduct the
Manhattan Projects Sites Special
Resources Study to evaluate options for preserving and interpreting
facilities at four sites that were in the World War II Manhattan Project: Oak
Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; Dayton, Ohio; and Hanford, Washington.
The study is evaluating the potential for selected facilities at these
sites to be included into the NPS system and/or to identify other management
options. The facilities being study
at Hanford include B Reactor and T Plant, the chemical processing plant used to
extract the plutonium from the irradiated fuel produced in B Reactor during
World War II. The total Special Resources Study is being managed by the NPS
Denver office, with the Hanford portion being conducted by the NPS Pacific West
Region in Seattle.
Progress to date...
Scoping Meetings
The NPS Study Team conducted two public meetings with stakeholders in each of
the study areas. The objective of
the meetings was to present and describe the purposes and goals of the special
resources study and to obtain input on the issues, concerns and vision for the
future for the various sites. The
Hanford site meetings were held in Richland in March 2006 with more than 150
people participating in the two meetings.
The Richland participants expressed a high level of concern over the fate of B
Reactor, with strong support for its preservation as an interpreted historical
exhibit. Participants would like to
see public access to the reactor from the Vernita Bridge over the Columbia River
at the west end of the Hanford Reach National Monument.
They would like interpretation and access of the Hanford Site tied into
the development of the Hanford Reach National Monument Heritage and Visitor
Center to be built on the Columbia Point section located in Richland at the
confluence of the Yakima and Columbia Rivers.
Train, bus and boat tours to Hanford and B Reactor from Richland were
also suggested.
Evaluation for National Significance, Suitability, and Feasibility
The public scoping meetings were followed by an evaluation by the NPS Teams for
each site to determine if each of the candidate facilities meets the National
Significance, Suitability and Feasibility criteria for new sites to added to the
NPS system. The NPS determined in
their evaluation that Hanford’s B Reactor and T Plant both met the criteria for
significance and suitability, but only B Reactor met the feasibility criterion.
T Plant was not judged to be feasible for inclusion in a New National
Parkland because DOE expects to continue to use T Plant for temporary storage of
contaminated materials and nuclear decontamination activities for many years
into the future.
Local Workshop to Determine Management Options
In February 2007, the Seattle NPS Study Team conducted a two-day workshop in
Richland to review the results of their significance, suitability, and
feasibility evaluation and to develop a set of alternative management options
for the preservation and public use of the Hanford facilities.
Since T Plant did not meet the feasibility criterion, management options
were considers only for B Reactor during the workshop. There were five
management alternatives identified at the workshop, with a series of pros and
cons developed for each of the options, in order to assist the NPS Seattle
Office in evaluating the alternatives.
Next Steps
The NPS Seattle office will be preparing a written draft of the description of
each B Reactor alternative, an evaluation of the options, and a recommended
option. The B Reactor options
analysis will be done in consultation with the Native American Tribes and the
State Historical Preservation Office.
In the fall of 2007, an NPS Denver Office will issue a Study Newsletter that
will include a description of the B Reactor alternatives, the evaluation, and
recommended option. Public comment
will be invited on the B Reactor option through a series of public meetings to
be held in Richland.
In the spring of 2008, a final draft of the Study Report will be issued, with
public meetings held for comment in the late spring and early summer 2008.
Following the final revision to the Study Report, incorporating the
public comments, the final Study Report will be printed, along with a Record of
Decision; the Secretary of the Interior will present the Study results to
Congress; and the report will be released to the public in the spring of 2009.
To Follow the NPS Planning Process and Access Study Documents on the Internet
1. Log on to
http://parkplanning.nps.gov
2. Click on the Advanced Search link
located in the text of the page
3. Under Project Type pull down,
select Special Resource Study/New Area
Study
4. Click the Search button
5. Click on the Manhattan Project Sites
Special Resources Study link
What can you do to help?
To be ready to better serve tours, B Reactor needs:
1. A new roof
2. Seismic upgrades
3. An improved access road (from Highway 240), with gates and fence
4. Bathrooms with running water
Contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators to let them know you
care and want them to help save B Reactor for future generations. In
Washington State, you can contact:
Senator Patty Murray
Senator_murray@murray.senate.gov
173 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4704
202-224-2621
FAX: 202-224-0238
Senator Maria Cantwell
cantwell@senate.gov – then use Web form
717 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4705
202-224-3441
FAX 202-220-228-0514
Congressman Richard “Doc” Hastings
www.house.gov/hastings - then use Web Form
1323 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-4704
202-225-5816
FAX 202-225-3251
Congressman Norm Dicks
www.house.gov/dicks - then use Write Your Rep
2467 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-4706
202-225-5916
FAX 202-226-1176
Additional Info about B Reactor:
www.atomicheritage.org
www.nps.gov
www.ci.richland.wa.us/richland/hanford
B Reactor Environment, Safety & Cleanup
Letter from Doc Hastings to Department of Interior
If you have questions or comments, please call the CREHST Museum at (509) 943-9000 and request to be connected to "B-Reactor Line." Leave a voicemail with your question or comment, your name, phone number and the best time you can reached. We depend on B Reactor volunteers to assist in responses, so please note that responses may take up to 7-days. You also can email your questions and comments to: Crehstmuseum@crehst.org
