Take a journey back in time as Hanford artifacts show the beginning of the atomic age

An exhibit of Hanford nuclear reservation artifacts dating back to World War II will have a grand opening Thursday at Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland.

The exhibit is planned to mark the 75th anniversary of the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, where the world’s first full-scale nuclear production reactor began operating. It made the plutonium for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, helping end WWII and launching the atomic age.

The exhibit includes artifacts from the collections of the Department of Energy and the WSU Tri-Cities Hanford History Project. It is at the WSU Tri-Cities Consolidated Information Center Art Gallery on Crimson Way.

The grand opening of the exhibit, “People of the Manhattan Project: Building an Atomic City,” will be 5 to 7 p.m.

The exhibit will be open during regular campus hours through the beginning of October.