Remembering JFK’s visit to Hanford. 37,000 watched him wave ‘atomic wand’

Just eight weeks before his assassination President John F. Kennedy stood before a crowd of 37,000 on the normally closed Hanford nuclear reservation.

His helicopter had touched down near N Reactor and he stepped out in a cloud of dust.

He was at Hanford to lead the ceremonial groundbreaking for a project that would make Hanford’s N Reactor the largest nuclear power plant in the world.

JFK was back in the news on Thursday as more documents related to his assassination were set to be released by the National Archives and Records Administration.

At Hanford on Sept. 26, 1963, he participated in a bit of showmanship choreographed by the Washington Public Power Supply System.

He waved an “atomic wand” over a Geiger counter, with the sound of the counter’s rapid clicking broadcast over the crowd as the wand’s uranium tip set in motion a clamshell crane.

It lifted a shovelful of dirt for a steam-power facility that would allow N Reactor to produce electricity as well as plutonium for the nation’s Cold War nuclear weapons program.

“I assume this is wholly on the level and there is no one over there working it,” he joked.

Not only was the day remembered for Kennedy’s visit, but also made history as the first time the general public had been allowed on the nuclear reservation. Officials offered tours of N Reactor.

School let out early to allow children to attend. For many families, it was the first time they could get a glimpse of where a father, mother or grown child worked each day.

Read a full account of the Kennedy’s visit as reported on the 50th anniversary in the Herald archives.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 12:17 PM with the headline "Remembering JFK’s visit to Hanford. 37,000 watched him wave ‘atomic wand’."