World's First Nuclear Reactor Now A Landmark

[Robbien]

RICHLAND, WA (AP) - The federal government has designated the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor, built in 13 months to produce plutonium for an atomic bomb during World War II, a National Historic Landmark.

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Construction began on June 7, 1943, six months after physicist Enrico Fermi turned the theory of nuclear power into the reality of the Atomic Age. In short order, the reactor produced plutonium for the first man-made atomic blast, the Trinity test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, and for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945.

Eight more reactors were built at Hanford to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, leaving a legacy of pollution that has made Hanford the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site with cleanup costs expected to top $50 billion.

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He now aids the Energy Department with Hanford tours that include the B Reactor. About 2,000 people have visited the complex this year.

http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/3562.htm

So, while they are debating on how to clean up the massive amounts of contamination, they have slapped a coat of paint on it, built a gift shop and opened the doors to tourists.