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With support and funding from Humanities Washington, current Guest House Cultural Capital Scholar Resident scholar Philippe Hyojung Kim (b. 1989) tours the B Reactor and Hanford site. Philippe will be in residence with the GHCC until September 13, 2019. He will be hosting a lecture and artist talk (free + open to the public) Tuesday, September 10 @ 10:30am – 12:00pm @ Washington State University TC, TEST 266 (East Auditorium).
Hanford's B Reactor, pivotal in the development of nuclear technology, occupies a footprint of 14 by 12 meters (1,750 sq feet) and is approximately five stories tall. The reactor core itself consisted of an 11-meter-tall (36 ft) graphite box measuring 8.5 by 11 meters (1,008 sq feet) and weighed 1,200 short tons (1,100 tons). It was penetrated horizontally through its entire length by 2,004 aluminum tubes and vertically by channels for the vertical safety rods.
The core is surrounded by a cast-iron thermal shield, enclosed on its top and sides by masonite and steel plates, forming a biological shield for radiation protection. The bottom of the thermal shield is supported by a 7-meter-thick (23 ft) concrete pad topped by cast-iron blocks. The graphite composition was selected to moderate the nuclear reaction fueled by 200 short tons (180 tons) of uranium slugs, each approximately the size of a roll of quarters. The slugs were sealed in aluminum cans and loaded into the aluminum tubes.
B Reactor, Hanford Site (Manhattan Project) Near Richland, Washington
B Reactor Hanford Site
Front face of the B Reactor
The B Reactor, at the Hanford Site in 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). It was fueled with metallic natural uranium, graphite moderated and water-cooled.
Every once in a while, you just have to stop whatever you're doing and take the time to go see a decommissioned nuclear reactor in the desert.
