Hanford Site

The Hanford Site is a former United States nuclear production complex on the Columbia River in Washington. It produced plutonium for nuclear weapons and is now undergoing extensive environmental cleanup.

B Reactor: The first full-scale plutonium production reactor, which began operating at Hanford in 1944. It was the first of Hanford’s nine production reactors and supplied plutonium for the Trinity test.
Manhattan Project: The United States-led research and production program that developed the first atomic bombs during World War II. Hanford was one of the project’s three principal production sites.
Hanford nuclear waste site: The contaminated lands and facilities at Hanford that require long-term cleanup and management. Decades of production left radioactive and chemical contamination across the site.
Trinity test: The first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. The test device used plutonium produced at Hanford.
Nuclear reactor: A device that sustains controlled nuclear fission to release heat or radiation. Hanford’s graphite-moderated reactors used fission to irradiate uranium fuel.
Leslie Groves: The U.S. Army engineer who directed the Manhattan Project during World War II. Groves selected Hanford for the project’s plutonium production complex.
Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant: A facility designed to separate and immobilize radioactive waste stored in Hanford’s underground tanks. It is a central part of the effort to treat Hanford’s most hazardous tank waste.
Fat Man: The plutonium implosion bomb detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Its fissile core contained plutonium produced at Hanford.
Nuclear fuel cycle: The processes that produce, use, and manage nuclear fuel and its resulting materials. Hanford’s production reactors and reprocessing plants formed a weapons-oriented fuel cycle.
DuPont: An American chemical company that designed and operated major Manhattan Project production facilities. DuPont built and managed Hanford’s wartime reactor and chemical-processing plants.

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