Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire is urging the National Park Service to preserve Hanford's historic B Reactor and include it in any plans for a Manhattan District National Historic Park.
"Hanford's B Reactor is already a popular visitor destination for those wanting to walk through the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor and experience a slice of 1940s life in the U.S.," she wrote in a letter to Jon Jarvis, park service director.
Today the sign-up for tours of the reactor throughout 2010 opens on the internet at 12:01 a.m. and at 8 a.m. by telephone or in person. The number of tour seats has been increased from about 1,800 last year to more than 4,000 this year.
Gregoire is one of many leaders -- including Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Doc Hastings -- who have written Jarvis to urge park service preservation and interpretation of the reactor since a draft study on preserving Manhattan Project sites was released by the park service.
Only one alternative in the study considered forming a Manhattan Project National Historical Park and it would not include B Reactor. Some other alternatives would offer no or limited park service support to the reactor, but it would not be a national park site.
B Reactor was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor. Built in about 13 months, it produced the plutonium for the world's first nuclear explosion and for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping to end World War II. It continued to produce plutonium as one of Hanford's nine production reactors during the Cold War.
"Hanford's B Reactor offers one-of-a-kind historic insight into our nation's engineering, science and defense programs, during the 1940s," Gregoire wrote. "B Reactor was -- and is -- an engineering marvel, with blueprints being developed during construction and Hanford crews needing to invent and build specialized tools for the project."
B Reactor and work there changed the world forever, she wrote.
"The lessons learned and progress made during this historic early period of plutonium production served to advance our understanding of the benefits and risks of nuclear power," she wrote.
Preserving the reactor provides an opportunity "to reflect on important lessons of this period," she wrote.
It also would increase tourism in the Mid-Columbia, providing an economic boost, she said.
She toured B Reactor in 2006 with her husband and a daughter and said then that its story needed to be told and told without bias as a part of history.
Those who want to tour B Reactor this year can begin signing up at www.hanford.gov after registration opens. Registration also may be done by calling the B Reactor Tour Headquarters at 373-2774 or visiting the headquarters in person at the Tri-Cities Enterprise Center at 2000 Logston Blvd. off Highway 240 in Richland. The office is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
The tours will be held on 36 days from April 6 to Sept. 25. They will start at 9 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesdays and at 8 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. on Saturdays. Walk-ons will be accepted for the tours if there are no-shows.
Visitors will spend about two hours at the reactor and also ride a bus or van 45 minutes each way. Participant must be at least 18 years old, but no longer are required to be U.S. citizens.
Longer tours of the entire Hanford nuclear reservation, including work to clean up environmental contamination, also are offered. Registration for those tours opened last week and all seats filled in less than 14 hours. However, openings for the Hanford tour will be posted without notice if there are cancellations at www.hanford.gov.
-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; More Hanford news at hanfordnews.com.
