Interpretive Themes NATIONAL PARK SERVICE • U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park—they define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors about a park unit. Themes Foundation Document Overview are derived from—and should reflect—park purpose, Manhattan Project National Historical Park significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary New Mexico, Tennessee, Washington for park staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all of the park significances and fundamental resources and values. • The “secret cities” created for the Manhattan Project, and the sacrifice and displacement connected to them, exemplified this massive wartime effort and demonstrate remarkable opportunities to reflect on the extraordinary lengths to which people and nations go to protect their futures. • The revolutionary science and engineering that fueled the race to create the world’s first atomic weapon make these places a powerful illustration of technological innovation and collaboration, and offer guidance and insight into solving today’s complex problems. • From beginning to end, the Manhattan Project, its World War II context, and the many complex decisions that led to the incomprehensible destructive power of nuclear weapons prompts us to confront the profound choices and consequences that the world continues to struggle with today. • The Manhattan Project thrust humanity into the nuclear age and forever changed the world, provoking consideration of dramatic scientific and technological advances as well as severe human costs and environmental consequences. Contact Information For more information about the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Foundation Document, contact: [email protected] or write to: Superintendent, Manhattan Project National Historical Park, P.O. Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225-0287 FundamentalDescription Resources and Values FundamentalEstablished on resources November and 10, values 2015, are Manhattan those features, Project systems, • Y-12 Plant Buildings 9731 and 9204-3. The electromagnetic • Gun Site Buildings. The Gun Site area of Los Alamos Hanford,• Hanford Washington High School. Hanford High School was a processes,National Historical experiences, Park stories, preserves, scenes, interprets, sounds, and smells, facilitates or separation method for uranium enrichment was pioneered was used during World War II to test the gun-type focal point of the pre-Manhattan Project community The Hanford Engineer Works produced plutonium on otheraccess attributes to key historic determined resources to merit associated primary with consideration the at industrial scale in Buildings 9731 and 9204-3 at the Y-12 weapon designs known as “Thin Man” and “Little Boy.” of Hanford, Washington. The school was vacated when an industrial scale. Its isolated location offered a margin duringManhattan planning Project. and The management Manhattan processes Project wasbecause a massive, they are National Security Complex, and these buildings produced Gun Site buildings consist of three concrete, earth- the town of Hanford was condemned for the Manhattan the final highly enriched uranium used in the “Little Boy” of safety given the dangerous nature of its activities and essentialtop-secret to national achieving mobilization the purpose of of scientists, the park andengineers, maintaining covered bunkers (Laboratory and Shop [TA-8-1], Shop Project, and was used for a short time as office space. Only bomb. Building 9731 was the first building constructed at the and Storage [TA-8-2], Diesel Generator Building [TA-8- the nearbythe outer Columbia shell of Riverthe original provided structure cooling remains water for intact. its itstechnicians, significance. and military personnel charged with producing Y-12 site, and contains the world’s only three alpha calutron 3]) and a portable guard shack (TA-8-172). Components powerfulThe current nuclear property reactors. withinJust 18 the months park afteralso includes the start aof small a deployable atomic weapon during World War II. It resulted Oak Ridge, Tennessee magnets as well as three beta calutron magnets. These of “Little Boy” were also assembled at the Gun Site construction,portion of Hanford the Hanford had produced Construction the plutonium Camp, where used more in in the first successful test of an atomic device on July 16, 1945, calutrons were used as test beds for the rest of the Y-12 before being shipped to the Pacific. the Trinitythan 50,000 Test and workers the “Fat lived Man” in tents implosion-type and barracks bomb. during The the •a fewK-25 weeks Building before Site. the United The gaseous States diffusiondropped atomic method bombs for complex. Building 9204-3 contains the last two remaining parkconstruction includes the Bof Reactor the Hanford National Engineer Historic Works. Landmark, uranium enrichment was pioneered at an industrial scale at Beta racetracks in America. One of these racetracks was in on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Coordinated by the U.S. • V-Site. The V-Site buildings include the Assembly as well as the pre-war Hanford High School, Bruggemann’s Army,the ManhattanK-25 building. Project Built activities in March took 1945, place the inmammoth numerous 44- use as recently as 1998 for the separation of stable isotopes, OakBuilding Ridge, (HighTennessee Bay) (TA-16-516) and Workshop (TA-16- • White Bluffs Bank. The White Bluffs Bank building is acre building produced enriched uranium feed material for Agricultural Warehouse, White Bluffs Bank, and Hanford locations across the United States. The park is managed and remains on standby for potential future use. The Clinton517), and Engineer were constructed Works in Oakto support Ridge, theTennessee, assembly of the the only remaining structure of the pre-Manhattan Project the Y-12 electromagnetic separators for further enrichment, Irrigation District Pump House, which together provide through a collaborative partnership by the National Park servedplutonium as the administrative implosion-type headquarters bomb. They for were the alsoManhattan used to community of White Bluffs, Washington. When first including some of the uranium used in the “Little Boy” Los Alamos, New Mexico perspective on the sacrifices made for the Manhattan Project. Service and the U.S. Department of Energy, and incorporates Projectassemble and also the produced high-explosives the enriched sphere uranium for the Trinity used in device, constructed, it was claimed to be robbery-proof, though weapon that was dropped on Hiroshima. The U-shaped • Pond Cabin (TA-18-29). The Pond Cabin (TA-18-29), a the “Littleknown Boy” as the gun-type Gadget. bomb. V-Site Enrichment buildings in increasesuse during the the it was robbed twice in its operating history due to an threebuilding, of the Manhattanwhich measured Project’s a half-mile most significant long and 1,000locations: feet Visitor Access log structure, was built in 1914 by settler Ashley Pond and concentrationwar also included of the fissile several uranium-235 storage and isotope shop buildings to a level that easily breached wooden roof. The bank building, a small Oakwide, Ridge, continued Tennessee; to produce Los Alamos, highly New enriched Mexico; uranium and used supported Emilio Segrè’s plutonium fission research. The suitablewere for destroyed weapons by use. the Due Cerro to wartime Grande Fireurgency, in May scientists of 2000. The 25-footNational by Park 30-foot Service single-story and Department concrete of block Energy structure, will Hanford,in thermonuclear Washington. weapons during the Cold War until Pond Cabin is at the Pajarito Site, in Pajarito Canyon, on at OakThe Ridge V-Site developed was located multiple well away processes from forother uranium facilities at workis with currently American undergoing Indian Tribes,a comprehensive descendants rehabilitation of displaced production ceased in 1964. The K-25 building has since the Los Alamos National Laboratory grounds. The unprecedented scientific and industrial activities of enrichment,Los Alamos, and severalfor safety sites as andwell structures as security that reasons. supported communityto replicate members, the period other appearance organizations, and and facilitate members been demolished, and its footprint will remain undeveloped. these processes are incorporated into the park. These include public visitation. the Manhattan Project displaced many communities with • Battleship Bunker (TA-18-2). The Battleship Control of the general public who are interested in the park’s buildingsHanford, 9731 Washington and 9204-3, which housed large arrays or development. Due to ongoing national security requirements •thousands X-10 Graphite of people Reactor. to make The way world’sfor the rapidfirst constructioncontinuously Building was constructed to support implosion diagnostic • Bruggemann’s Agricultural Complex Warehouse. “racetracks” of calutrons that separated uranium isotopes of Manhattanoperating nuclear Project reactor, the X-10 Graphite Reactor tests for the plutonium implosion-type bomb design. A • B Reactor. The B Reactor is the first full-scale production and cleanupLocated activities, within two some miles sites of theincluded B Reactor, in the the park warehouse are with electromagnets, as well as the site of the enormous infrastructure.produced the first significant amounts