Abstract

This article analyzes the historic preservation of B Reactor, the world's first nuclear reactor, constructed for the Manhattan Project and located at Hanford, Washington. As the facility that produced the plutonium for the first Trinity test in central New Mexico and for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the remnant building potentially offers a device for critically exploring momentous topics. These include the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the inception of the American "military-industrial complex," Cold War foreign relations, the development of the antibomb movements, the environmental and public health effects of nuclear waste, and the role of nuclear weapons in contemporary times. However, B Reactor has been presented only in narrow technical terms since its recent opening for public tours. The article explores how the geographical properties of the site could be turned toward a more properly contextual and meaningful interpretation.

pdf

Share