detail, old railway engines at the B Reactor Hanford, near Richland, Washington
Image details
Contributor:
B.O'Kane / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
JHJ0MMFile size:
68.7 MB (2.5 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
6000 x 4000 px | 50.8 x 33.9 cm | 20 x 13.3 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
13 July 2017Location:
Hanford, Benton County, Washington, USAMore information:
The B Reactor at the Hanford Site, near Richland, Washington, was the first large-scale nuclear reactor ever built. The project was commissioned to produce plutonium-239 by neutron activation as part of the Manhattan Project, the United States nuclear weapons development program during World War II. The B reactor was fueled with metallic natural uranium, graphite moderated, and water-cooled. It has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark since August 19, 2008[3][4] and in July 2011 the National Park Service recommended that the B Reactor be included in the Manhattan Project National Historical Park commemorating the Manhattan Project. The reactor was designed and built by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company based on experimental designs tested by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago, and tests from the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It was designed to operate at 250 megawatts (thermal). The B Reactor had its first nuclear chain reaction in September, 1944, the D Reactor in December 1944 and the F Reactor in February 1945. The reactor produced plutonium-239 by irradiating uranium-238 with neutrons generated by the nuclear reaction. It was one of three reactors – along with the D and F reactors – built about six miles (10 km) apart on the south bank of the Columbia River. Emergency shutdown of the reactor, referred to as a SCRAM, was attained either by rapidly fully inserting the vertical safety rods (now called control rods) or, as a backup method, by the injection of borated water into the reactor. The plutonium for the nuclear bomb used in the Trinity test in New Mexico and the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan was created in the B, D, and F reactors. These first three reactors ran for two decades, and were joined by additional reactors constructed later. The B Reactor was permanently shut down in February 1968.