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Hanford B Reactor Now Officially A National Park

Tobin Fricke
/
Wikimedia

Hanford officials and community boosters In southeast Washington are hosting a celebration Thursday at an historic nuclear reactor. A signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday made the Manhattan Project National Historical Park official.

The federal departments of Energy and Interior have agreed to co-manage three Manhattan Project sites across the country including the Hanford B Reactor. The presently limited public access should increase in coming years.

At Hanford there are already organized government tours and volunteer docents. Visitors can tour the reactor where the plutonium for some of the nation’s first atomic bombs were made. The other two locations that are part of the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park are at Los Alamos in New Mexico and Oak Ridge in Tennessee.

The Tri-Cities and the other gateway communities hope national park status will provide a boost to their economies.

Copyright 2015 Northwest News Network

Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.
Anna King
Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from a studio at Washington State University, Tri-Cities. She covers the Mid-Columbia region, from nuclear reactors to Mexican rodeos.