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Hanford's Historic B Reactor

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Hanford's Historic B Reactor NT O E F E TM N R E A R P G E Y D • • U United States Department of Energy N A I C T I E R D E M Richland Operations Office ST A ATES OF Hanford’s B Reactor Eventually, the lands along the A need Columbia River in southeastern Washington state supported The Hanford Site began as part nine nuclear reactors at the of the United States Manhattan height of Hanford's nuclear Project to research, test and build defense production during atomic weapons during World the Cold War era. War II. The B Reactor was shut down in The original 670-square mile 1968. In 1980, the U.S. Department Hanford Site, then known as of Energy began removing all the Hanford Engineer Works, B Reactor support facilities. The was the last of three top- reactor building is all that remains. secret sites constructed that produced enriched uranium and plutonium for the world's A future first nuclear weapons. Currently, workers are removing hazards from the building and A past expanding the area available for public access. A planning process B Reactor, located about 45 miles during the 2002 fiscal year will northwest of Richland, Wash., evaluate long-term uses for is the world's first full-scale B Reactor. plutonium-production reactor. Not only was B Reactor a first- of-its-kind engineering structure, it was built and fully functional in just 13 months. B Reactor in operation during the 1940s WASHINGTON Riv ia e b r m lu o Spokane C Seattle 100 Area (Reactors) Hanford Site B Reactor 200 West 200 East Area Area 300 Area City of Richland B Reactor Today In August 2000, DOE-RL and Bechtel Hanford Inc., the Ensuring A Safe Visit Environmental Restoration Contractor, partnered in a project to protect and maintain Follow the directions Hanford's B Reactor while of your escort providing limited public access. Stay with your escort Potential hazards still exist on the designated within the building, but the tour route. approved tour route is safe for visitors and workers. Do not reach across any Additional areas may be opened posted radiological as hazards are mitigated and signs or barriers public safety can be assured. Putting It All Together B Reactor control room This control room is where B Reactor operators manipulated control rods to monitor temperature levels and guard against potential malfunctions. Many of the control room instruments originated at the Hanford Site. Retired B Reactor instrument supervisor, Dee McCullough, tells a visitor how the control panel worked. B Reactor core facts • 36-feet long, 28-feet • 2,004 process tubes • Originally operated wide, 36-feet high at 250 megawatts • 32 fuel slugs per thermal • Core sits on a 23-foot process tube thick concrete • Productivity: 1,000 foundation • 200 tons of uranium kilowatts per hour for fuel slugs filled reactor 1 month = 1 ounce • Core and work area plutonium encased by 5-foot thick • 2,200 tons graphite concrete walls for core • Original cooling system: Treated river water entered core at 30,000 gpm; exited at 149 degrees Fahrenheit Hanford Site nuclear defense production areas During World War II and the Cold War era the Hanford bia R m iv Site comprised three main lu e o r areas dedicated to the C production of plutonium. 100 Area The 300 Area was where Reactors workers manufactured and fabricated fuel slugs to place inside reactor cores. Fuel was irradiated in reactors at 200 Area the 100 Areas. In the 200 Fuel Separations Areas, plutonium was chemically extracted from 300 Area irradiated fuel. Fuel Fabrication and Laboratories Required plutonium production steps Plutonium is an element created in reactors from uranium and rarely occurs in nature outside of nuclear reactor production. 12 Uranium-238 Uranium-239 Uranium-238 is After roughly 20 bombarded with minutes of existence, neutrons in reactors uranium-239 decays to to form Uranium-239 neptunium-239 34 Neptunium-239 Plutonium-239 After a half-life of 2.3 Plutonium-239 days, neptunium-239 produces a nuclear decays into explosion when plutonium-239 configured correctly The B Reactor Tour Route A Work Area C Accumulators The work area faces the reactor Three hydraulically-elevated core and provided the space tanks containing river rocks were needed to add fresh uranium suspended as a fail-safe backup fuel. Here, workers loaded 8.5- in case of an electrical failure. The inch long by 1.5-inch diameter accumulators were locked into aluminum clad uranium place when the reactor started. cylinders called slugs. The The tanks descended in a power loading, or charging, elevator failure while their hydraulic- ran across the reactor face pressure pushed seven control providing access to each row rods into the reactor shutting of process tubes for operation down the chain reaction. and maintenance. Fuel slugs were pushed out of the reactor rear face into a spent fuel D Control Room storage basin as new fuel was added in front. An operator monitored and controlled the reactor from the main control panel. The operator B Reactor Front Face regulated the chain reaction by The front face pipes held inserting or retracting one or cooling water furnished from more of the nine control rods and an original pair of 20-inch monitored various gauges used risers that were replaced by to measure water pressure in 36-inch risers in 1957. Water each of the 2,004 process tubes. from the risers ran through 39 horizontal cross-headers into flexible process tubes and E Fuel Basin Viewing Window through couplings called The fuel basin viewing window pigtails. Nine horizontal shows the wooden deck that control rods on the left side of suspended workers above a basin the reactor block were pulled where irradiated fuel was stored out to increase the chain in 20 feet of water. Spent fuel was reaction, or inserted to slow stored in the basin for up to two down or shutdown the chain months. The water shielded reaction. Twenty-nine vertical workers from radiation while the safety rods were suspended fuel cooled off. Irradiated fuel above the reactor from slugs were then moved to the fuel electromagnetic clutches. transfer bay and shipped by rail In the event of a malfunction, car to the 200 Areas where the rods would drop into plutonium was extracted the core and shutdown the from the fuel. chain reaction. F Valve Pit G Fan Rooms The walkway looks down at The intake fan room supplied the plumbing that supplied ventilation into B Reactor and water to the reactor from the allowed for pressurized zones. now demolished pumphouse. Air was exhausted through a By 1957, more than 70,000 gpm 200-foot stack at the building’s could be pumped through south end. the reactor cooling system compared to the initial intake of 30,000 gpm. Several backup H Instrument Shop systems were available to ensure cooling water would The room was originally used reach the reactor in an as a shop where B Reactor emergency. workers calibrated, fixed and maintained instruments. Currently, the room is used as a lunchroom for B Reactor staff and the only area used for food and beverage consumption. The room also serves as a place for visitors to rest during tours. Historical Recognition for B Reactor Since the United States BiCentennial in 1976, Hanford's B Reactor has been recognized for its historical significance as one of the 20th Century's most important technological inventions. 1976 National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1992 National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Nuclear Historic Landmark 1993 American Nuclear Society 1994 National Civil Engineering Landmark American Society of Civil Engineers 2002 National Historic Landmark (in process) National Park Service B Reactor History 1942 December 28, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the Manhattan Project 1943 January, the Hanford Engineer Works (Hanford Site), the Manhattan Project's third top-secret location, is selected October, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers break ground to build B Reactor 1944 September 13, first uranium fuel slugs are loaded into B Reactor September 26, B Reactor goes critical 1945 February 3, B Reactor plutonium delivered to Los Alamos, New Mexico July 16, B Reactor plutonium used in world's first nuclear explosion at the Trinity Test in Alamogordo, New Mexico August 9, B Reactor plutonium used in Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan September 2, Japan officially surrenders and W.W.II comes to an end 1946 March 1946 - June 1948, B Reactor temporarily shutdown 1949 March, B Reactor begins irradiating lithium-fluoride slugs for tritium production November 1, B Reactor tritium used in world's first test detonation of a 1952 hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific B Reactor continues lithium-fluoride irradiation 1968 January 29, Atomic Energy Commission issues shutdown of B Reactor February 12, B Reactor permanently shutdown 1980 B Reactor declared excess property by U.S. Government September, final Hanford land use plan for the next 50 years allows 1999 visits to B Reactor August, B Reactor Project formed by DOE-Richland Operations Office and 2000 managed by Bechtel Hanford Inc., the Environmental Restoration Contractor August, Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis report released by DOE 2001 and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determines 10-year hazard mitigation and public access as interim uses for B Reactor Before B Reactor First settlers Native Americans occupied the Hanford area for several thousand years before settlement of southeastern Washington state by Europeans. The local tribes, particularly the Wanapums, thrived until the early 1800s, before the arrival of explorers, fur trappers and Euro-American ranchers and farmers.
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