RAC team members Helen Grogan (shown in photo below in control room) and Mark Packard recently toured the Hanford Site B Reactor National Historic Landmark while visiting the site for a project meeting.
As part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, and in partnership with the National Park Service, the Department of Energy has offered free public tours of the B Reactor since 2009.
In the photo at top of the Hanford Site B Area from World War II, 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 B Reactor was the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Operations began in September 1944; the reactor was shut down from 1946-1948, and then went back into service until 1968.