Manhattan Project sites could become national park by 2013

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Manhattan Project sites could become national park by 2013

In the mid to late 1940s, the Manhattan Project developed the first atomic weapon and changed the world forever. If a bill currently in Congress is passed, the three major Manhattan Project sites in New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington state could get protected national park status.

A bill currently in congress will, if passed, make sure that Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Hanford nuclear reactors in Washington state, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee get handed over to the National Parks Department and the Department of Energy for renovation, preservation, and public accessibility. All three of these sites will technically become part of one single park, although top students of geography will note that they’re nowhere near each other.

The focus of the park for most people will likely be Los Alamos in New Mexico. This is where the first atomic test in history took place, and where the bulk of the scientific development was performed. Los Alamos is still operational and doing science, but a lot of the structures from the Manhattan Project era are in danger of being condemned, including bunkers that once housed the first atomic bomb (nicknamed “the gadget”) as well as the residence of Manhattan project director J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oak Ridge, in Tennessee, was where uranium 235 (which is fissile) was separated from uranium 238 (which isn’t). To do this required a massive gas diffusion cascade inside a 2,000,000 square foot building, which now sounds like it’s going to be preserved (at least in part) instead of getting torn down. Meanwhile, out in Washington, Hanford was the place where plutonium was produced inside nuclear reactors. Both the uranium and the plutonium were then shipped to Los Alamos for use in testing and, eventually, weapons.

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