In today's video, I visit the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor...
Which is now a national historic landmark, offering tours operated by the National Park Service.
It's known as the B reactor, and it's not far from where I live.
The work they did here in the 1940s to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons...
Led directly to the end of World II...
And it helped keep the Russians at bay during the cold war.
This was one of America's most important secrets during World War II.
But these days, it's no secret at all.
In fact, they offer public tours.
This was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor, built in the 1940s...
Where they turned large amounts of Uranium, a naturally-occurring metal...
In to small amounts of man-made Plutonium, enough to make nuclear bombs.
A lot of people think that the world's first nuclear bomb...
Was the one that fell on Hiroshima, Japan, in August of 1945.
But that's not actually true.
The world's first detonation of a nuclear weapon actually occurred in July of 1945 in a desert in New Mexico.
It was a test, known as Trinity...
To prove that the complex design of the world's first nuclear weapon would actually work.
The core of that very first nuclear bomb at the Trinity test in July of 1945...
And the one known as Fat Man, that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in August of 1945...
Was made with Plutonium.
And that Plutonium was created right here at the B-reactor...
Only about 30 miles from where my house now stands, in Southeastern Washington.
The B-reactor is just one part of a huge 640-acre top-secret facility...
Known as The Hanford Site, that was rushed in to construction at the height of World War II.
There were more than 30 buildings and 20 service facilities that were part of just the B-reactor operations in those days...
And the whole point was to convert natural uranium metal into weapons-grade plutonium-239.
This nuclear reactor right here, is the heart of the whole operation.
And it's ironic that after being the focus of so much secrecy back in the day...
People of all nationalities and all age groups are now welcome to take a tour.
Of course, all the nuclear material in the building has long ago been cleaned up...
And it's totally safe to stand right next to the reactor now.
While a lot of the other nearby facilities have been demolished...
As part of that effort to remediate the nuclear hazards at Hanford...
The B reactor was preserved and is now part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
Public tours were suspended at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020...
And only recently resumed.
So, I jumped at the chance to get in on one of the recent tours.
You meet at a visitor's center just outside the city of Richland.
And they give you a short orientation...
And a chance to use the restroom...
Before everyone gets on to a tour bus...
For the 45 minute ride out to the remote area where the B-reactor is located.
Upon arrival, you walk right in to what used to be one of the country's most top-secret facilities...
And in fact, at the end of the entry corridor...
It opens up to the huge room that houses the front face of the reactor itself.
What a great backdrop for a little talk from a nuclear engineer who explains how the B-reactor worked.
And then after that introductory talk concludes...
You're free to walk through the facility on your own.
It was so interesting to just walk around at my own pace and examine everything...
And there were no restrictions on using cameras and photographing everything in the facility.
Of course, there are docents that you can ask questions to.
And everything has been preserved...
So you can really see what an amazing engineering accomplishment it was...
For them to build this facility in just one year.
And it actually worked!
It made the plutonium for the bombs that ended World War II...
And also continued to operate for decades after that...
During the cold war, when it was important to have a credible nuclear deterrent for the Russians.
Now you sometimes hear the term "a nuclear pile".
What that refers to is a pile of blocks of graphite...
And that's literally what's behind this wall we're looking at here.
Here is what real blocks of graphite actually look like...
And notice the holes that were drilled through the graphite blocks.
Here's a little 3D model of the nuclear pile that makes up the B reactor here at Hanford.
Thousands of tubes and rods run through the graphite...
Both horizontally and vertically...
Tubes that hold the uranium which creates the chain reaction that leads to the creation of plutonium.
The tubes also carried water, lots of it, to keep the reaction under control and cool the reactor.
And there were control rods that could be used to slow or stop the reaction.
While being here at the front face of the reactor is clearly the star attraction of the tour...
Another big highlight is having full access to the reactor control room.
Think about the stakes for the men that operated this reactor.
Being the ones responsible for something this new and unproven...
The world's first full-scale nuclear reactor.
Would it even work?
Would things go wrong?
And if they did go wrong, was the world prepared for the consequences?
Being here in the control room reminded me a lot of my 28-year career at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California.
While my job was a very low-level one, commensurate with my status as a college drop-out...
I had actually been in the control room at Diablo Canyon quite a few times...
And that gave me some insights in to what the atmosphere must have been like here at the B-reactor, back in the day.
As a train lover, I also really got a kick out of seeing these diesel locomotives just outside of the B reactor building.
These locomotives were used to move nuclear material in special protective shipping containers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground to build the B Reactor in October of 1943...
And incredibly, it was up and running less than one year later.
Can you believe that?
Building this extremely complex marvel of engineering in just one year. It's incredible!
B reactor ran for over two decades...
And was joined by several additional reactors that were constructed later here at the Hanford Site...
In order to meet the demand for weapons-grade nuclear material during the cold war.
The B Reactor was permanently shut down in February of 1968.
If you want to learn more about the B reactor... Head over to b-reactor.org
The web site for the B Reactor Museum Association.
You'll find a lot of good information there.
I hope you've enjoyed my video about the B reactor...
And if you're ever in Southeastern Washington, be sure to take the tour...
To learn more about this incredible chapter in our nation's history.
I'm Jim Zim. Thanks for watching.