Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb
In early 1943, the government condemned 670 square miles of Washington farmland and evicted everyone living there. Construction began immediately on something the workers couldn't name. By summer 1944, the B Reactor was operational - the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor, cooled by Columbia River water, producing the fissile material for the Nagasaki bomb. The workers at Hanford didn't know what they were making until August 1945, when they heard on the radio that the product of their labor had ended World War II. What remained after the war was an industrial complex that continued producing plutonium for nuclear weapons until 1987 - and the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere.
The Construction
Building Hanford required erasing what had been there. The towns of Hanford and White Bluffs were evacuated; orchards and farms were condemned. In their place rose a secret city: barracks for 50,000 workers, the highest concentration of construction labor ever assembled in one place. The workers knew only their specific tasks; the project's purpose was classified. They built the B Reactor in eleven months, an industrial miracle enabled by wartime urgency and unlimited budget. The site's isolation was the point - if something went catastrophically wrong, few would be affected. The Columbia River provided cooling water; the desert provided secrecy. By the time workers understood what they had built, the war was over.
The Reactors
Nine plutonium production reactors eventually operated at Hanford, producing the fissile material for America's nuclear arsenal throughout the Cold War. The reactors used uranium fuel, moderated by graphite, cooled by Columbia River water that was returned to the river significantly warmer and slightly radioactive. The B Reactor was the first and is now a National Historic Landmark - the only Manhattan Project reactor accessible to visitors. The reactors were primitive by later standards: graphite blocks stacked by hand, uranium slugs inserted into channels, everything learned for the first time. The technology that emerged from Hanford powered both weapons and peacetime reactors.
The Contamination
Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere. Decades of plutonium production left behind 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks, many of which are leaking. The Columbia River received radioactive effluent for decades. Groundwater contamination plumes stretch for miles. The cleanup began in 1989 and is expected to take until at least 2060, at a cost exceeding $100 billion. The work is painstaking: waste must be vitrified (turned to glass) for storage, contaminated soil must be excavated, groundwater must be treated. The legacy of winning World War II and the Cold War is a cleanup that will outlast the conflicts themselves.
The Ecology
The exclusion zone around Hanford became, paradoxically, a wildlife refuge. The Hanford Reach National Monument protects the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River in the United States - preserved because no one could build there while plutonium was being produced. The shrub-steppe ecosystem hosts elk, coyotes, and over 250 bird species. Salmon spawn in the river reach that once cooled reactors. The monument exists because of contamination; it persists because of protection. The wildlife don't know they inhabit the perimeter of the most toxic site in the hemisphere.
Visiting Hanford
The B Reactor at Hanford Site is accessible through public tours offered by the Department of Energy, typically spring through fall; advance registration required. The reactor is located within the secured Hanford Site; visitors must pass security screening. The REACH Museum in Richland interprets Hanford's history and the Manhattan Project. The Hanford Reach National Monument is open for recreation, including hiking and wildlife viewing, though some areas remain restricted. Richland embraces its nuclear heritage: the high school team is the 'Bombers,' with a mushroom cloud logo. The experience confronts the contradictions of nuclear history - the innovation that ended a war, created an arsenal, and left a century of cleanup.
From the Air
Located at 46.55°N, 119.49°W in southeastern Washington, along the Columbia River. From altitude, the Hanford Site appears as an exclusion zone - 586 square miles of desert where development stops. The Columbia River curves through the reservation. The decommissioned reactors are visible along the river; the tank farms where radioactive waste is stored appear as clusters of circular structures. The towns of Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco lie downstream, outside the boundary. What appears from altitude as empty desert is the most contaminated nuclear site in North America - where the Manhattan Project built the bomb and left a cleanup that will continue for generations.