“When President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the go-ahead for the Manhattan Project, he set in motion an extraordinary collaboration amongst scientists and the military to develop an atomic bomb, driven by fears of Hitler’s creating one first. Whether or not the eventual dropping of the bombs on Japan was necessary to end the war in the Pacific will probably never be resolved. But the bomb undoubtedly changed the world, as well as the cultural, historical, and physical landscape of southeastern Washington.”
—From “The Atomic Landscape,” by Tim Steury
Take a photographic journey through the history of Hanford below. Images and much of the text courtesy the Department of Energy and the Library of Congress. Visit the Hanford website to learn more.
Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960. The N Reactor is in the foreground, with the twin KE and KW Reactors in the immediate background. The historic B Reactor, the world’s first plutonium production reactor, is visible in the distance.
Before the reactors and the Manhattan Project, a little town called White Bluffs was formed. Approximately 900 people were living there by the early 1940s. Another small community known as Hanford was also located nearby.
Hanford was named after Tacoma-area judge Cornelius Hanford, who was an early resident. Here kids play baseball at Hanford School in 1913.
First motorized school bus in White Bluffs, with driver Edmund Anderson, fifteen students, and teacher. Before this students walked, rode horses, or rode in horse drawn busses.
Small, family-run stores and other businesses began to open after the turn of the century, and some of the earliest automobiles could be seen on the dirt streets of the communities. Buildings left to right: Post Office, Jess Brown’s Barber Shop, Brinson’s “Tavern”, and Rollinger’s Garage. Edward Worby’s car, the Silver Star, is at the far right.
Farming and agriculture were the dominant industries in these little towns, even though the area receives just seven inches of rain a year. An early irrigation system provided water from the Columbia River to orchards and field crops, and fruit ripened more quickly here than in any other part of the Pacific Northwest.
Fruit label for Columbia Brand Apples grown by C. Hanford.
A railroad called “Sagebrush Annie” carried riders between Hanford and White Bluffs. Children attended schools in both communities and White Bluffs even had a weekly newspaper.
A ferry docked near White Bluffs and shuttled passengers across the Columbia River. The same attributes which drew people to these small communities were also needed by the War Department in its effort to build an atomic weapon. It needed to have a remote area with few people nearby in order to build reactors and processing facilities; it needed the cold, clean water of the Columbia River to cool the reactors; and it needed the electricity provided by the recently completed Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam to power the buildings and structures associated with the project.
When the War Department decided to locate Hanford in this part of Washington, it also decided that the work to develop atomic weapons had to be done in secret. Subsequently, in early 1943, all of the residents of White Bluffs and Hanford were told to evacuate their homes and abandon their farms, and were given just thirty days and a small amount of money to do so. The only reason they were given to leave was that “it was important war work.” Farmers weren’t allowed to stay and to harvest their crops, resulting in some fruit growers being so angry that they chopped down all of the trees in their orchards before leaving. Even now, the stumps of these trees are still visible, remaining in the perfectly straight lines as they were more than sixty years ago. Also prohibited from going onto the Site were the Native Americans who had hunted and fished in the area for centuries. Today, little remains of either Hanford or White Bluffs.
B Reactor was the first reactor built on the Hanford Site, and was also the first full-scale reactor in the world. It took about one year to build B Reactor. In 1943, there had never been a full-scale, production size nuclear reactor built before. There were no blueprints, drawings, or designs that crews could refer to during the construction. Since computers hadn’t been invented, the top scientists and engineers often relied on hand written notes, assumptions, and calculations from slide rules in assigning workers the tasks to complete.
The Site was separated into three general “areas” depending on the work that was to be done there: “200 Area” for plutonium processing; “300 Area” for manufacturing and experiments; and the “100 Area” would be the land along the Columbia River where the nuclear reactors would be built. These reactors would be responsible for facilitating the nuclear chain reaction which transforms the composition of the element uranium into a material called plutonium, the critical ingredient needed for atomic weapons. The 105-B Rector building can be seen to the right of center; the 190-B Process Pump House with its four large tanks is to the left of center; the 181-B River Pump House on the Columbia River is at the top-left side of the picture; and the 184-B Power House is just south of the River Pump House (note the shadows of its two tall stacks pointing northeast.)
The 181-B River Pump House under construction in March 1944, with the 184-B Power Plant in the background. View is to the southeast.
One of the guard towers (building 1605-B) in the 100-B Area in January 1944, typical of those permitting surveillance of perimeter fences. As with the secrecy surrounding the reason for removing the Hanford and White Bluffs residents, very few of the workers who came to the Site knew what they were building or what these facilities would do once they were completed.
Its clock alley provided controlled access to the 100-B Area. The second floor was used to read radiation-detecting pencil dosimeters and to replace radiation-detecting film badges worn by employees. Because secrecy was critical, workers were told not to discuss their jobs with anyone. Those who did found themselves removed from the project and sent home. Rumors about the purpose of the work included everything from a manufacturing plant to make “Re-Elect President Franklin Delano Roosevelt” buttons to making massive quantities of toilet paper!
After the residents of White Bluffs and Hanford had moved away, the War Department began the process of recruiting workers to build the nuclear reactors and processing facilities required to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. People came from all over the country to Hanford, ultimately forming a 51,000 person work force.
The workforce created the fourth largest city in Washington State at the time, although living at Hanford didn’t offer much in the way of comfort. There were no homes for workers to live in, so most lived in travel trailers, army barracks, or even tents. Because the original shrub-steppe lands had been disturbed, wind whipped through the desert creating dust storms so fierce that people would quit and leave the project. Seasoned workers who had experienced these dust storms referred to them as “Termination Winds” since so many people new to the Site would pack up and move away after a storm rolled through the area. Not only did workers have to build these nuclear reactors and processing facilities, but they also had to build cafeterias, auditoriums, and offices to handle the massive influx of people who were drawn to Hanford. Once employed at the Site, a typical Hanford employee worked six days a week, but received good pay and all-you-could-eat food.
Under the careful supervision of such noted scientists as Enrico Fermi, crews began the process of building the first three of what would ultimately be nine plutonium production nuclear reactors at Hanford. Given the code names 105-B, 105-D, and 105-F these reactors were the first of their kind in the world. The angled top of the front shielding wall can be seen in the picture. All four walls were “stepped” in this manner where they joined with another wall or the ceiling to form a “labyrinth” joint, so that radiation would not have a straight route through any gaps in the joints.
Workers also built two massive processing facilities called “canyons”, where the plutonium would be extracted from the uranium “fuel rods” after they had been removed from the nuclear reactors.
This is one of the first photographs released to the public in 1945, and is perhaps the most often used photograph of 100-B. In only thirteen months, construction crews completed work on the B Reactor, the world’s first nuclear reactor, as well as the T Plant, the world’s first facility to extract plutonium from irradiated fuel rods.
B Reactor can be seen between the water towers on the right side of the photo, along with other facilities that supported reactor operations. The reactor began operating in September 1944; it was shut down from 1946-1948, and then went back into service until 1968. In August of 1945, plutonium from the B Reactor and the T Plant was used in the Fat Man Bomb which was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. World War II ended less than a week later.
After World War II ended, Hanford reactors continued to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. In addition to the B, D, and F Reactors, five more reactors were built next to the Columbia River as the United States and Russia began to stockpile weapons in what was termed the Cold War.
The racks for the nine horizontal control rods (HCRs) would be inserted or withdrawn from the pile to control the rate of reaction. In this case, it is the 105-F Reactor in February 1945. The view is looking away from the pile, which is out of the picture on the left. Several of the cooling water hose reels for the rods can be seen at the end of the racks near the wall.
There was one gauge for each of the pile’s 2,004 process tubes. Each gauge monitored the tube’s water pressure to ensure adequate cooling. Notice the wooden ladder, which operators could use when reading or adjusting the gauges. In later years, a large sign was installed across the top of the wall of gauges that read “Caution: Bumping This Panel Can Scram The Reactor.”
After World War II ended, Hanford reactors continued to produce plutonium for atomic weapons.
In addition to the B, D, and F Reactors, five more reactors were built next to the Columbia River as the United States and Russia began to stockpile weapons in what was termed the Cold War. H Reactor began operations in 1949. DR Reactor and C Reactor went operational in the early 1950’s. The K-East Reactor and K-West Reactor were running by 1955.
In 1959, construction began on the ninth Hanford reactor, called the N Reactor. N was a dual purpose reactor which produced plutonium for atomic weapons as well as steam for generating electricity. It was the only dual purpose reactor in the United States and was so advanced that President John F. Kennedy came to Hanford in September of 1963 to dedicate the reactor and to start the construction of the electricity generating component of N. For two years, from 1963 to 1965, all nine reactors were producing plutonium for America’s defense program.
In the mid-1960’s, some of the older reactors were shut down. By 1970, B, C, D, DR, F, and H Reactors had been deactivated. The K-East Reactor stopped production in 1970, followed by the K-West Reactor in 1971, leaving only the N Reactor operating on the Site. The N Reactor continued its mission of producing plutonium and electricity until 1987. During a routine maintenance shutdown of the reactor in early 1988, the Department of Energy decided to place it in a “standby” status, and it was never re-started.
For more than forty years, reactors located at Hanford produced plutonium for America’s defense program. The process of making plutonium is extremely “inefficient” in that a massive amount of liquid and solid waste is generated while only a small amount of plutonium is produced. Additionally, all of the facilities and structures that were associated with Hanford’s defense mission must also be deactivated, decommissioned, decontaminated, and demolished. That environmental cleanup project is the work that approximately 11,000 Hanford employees are involved with today. In the early morning hours of October 9, 2010, three structures at Hanford’s 300 Area came crashing to the ground as planned. The explosive demolition of the 309 Building stack, 337 Building and 337B Building capped months of work by Washington Closure Hanford and subcontractor staff. The stack was 110 feet tall, the 337B Building was 93 feet tall and the 337 Building was three stories tall.
Reactor buildings, support facilities, and auxiliary structures needed during the plutonium production days must also be cleaned up. For many of these buildings, the work requires crews to come in with bulldozers and other heavy equipment to bring them down. As some of these structures are either contaminated or were built using materials like asbestos, crews must take precautions to avoid being contaminated themselves or to avoid releasing contamination into the ground, the air, or the groundwater.