B Reactor — National Historic Landmark Nomination

This morning the Tri-City Herald had an article about the nomination of the B Reactor as a National Historic Landmark. I hope that it is made a National Historic Monument and that doing so will encourage the powers-that-be to figure out how to allow public access to the facility. Right now there is no way to get to the old reactor without taking a site tour that is only offered a couple times each year. My wife and I were able to tour the B Reactor last year in one of the few public tours offered.

“The B Reactor provides a tangible link to world-changing events of the final years of World War II and the initial years of the Cold War,” says the recently submitted nomination. “The plutonium produced in the building fueled the first-ever atomic device and the weapon dropped on Nagasaki, which ended World War II. The reactor’s design was the model for all U.S. reactors until 1952.”