A visit to the Hanford Museum

This is how the exhibit begins: photos of Richland taken before the Hanford site was acquired by the government. At the time, Richland was a windy and dusty tiny village in the middle of nowhere.

In the 20s, you would go to the barbershop to get a hair cut, to take a bath, or to have a drink.

For a long time, the number of available houses in Richland was largely below the demand. People had to sign in a waiting list, and sleep in dorms or in trailers in the meanwhile.

Richland, in 1943. Except for the cars and the houses which are in slightly better conditions, it is not so different from how some residential areas in southwest Richland still look like...

An aerial view of Richland, taken in 1942. If you compare it against Google maps, you see how many of the fields have been replaced by buildings.

A picture of the

This is how the B reactor looked like, as seen by a worked which showed up at the Hanford area gates.

Security personnel is still guarding the entire perimeter of the limited areas in the Hanford Area. Also in the non-limited areas, you have to clearly wear and ID badge, and you can be challenged anytime by anyone.

A reproduction of an engineer's office. It still exudes passion and effort.

On the table, a valuable POST Slide Rule.

Radioactive waste was stored in tanks, which are still there in many sites at the Hanford Area.

A double-shell tank, like the many still in the grounds of the Hanford area. A large effort is in place to clean up everything and making this waste harmless and inert by vitrification.

Having fun with the manipulator (yes, I'm older than 12). Workers used to manipulate radioactive materials with a remote manipulator exactly like this one. It's actually pretty easy to use it, even to carry out relatively complex tasks like opening a box and putting stuff in it.

The interconnect of the multiple, modular, manipulation rooms also featured the first industrial application of Teflon.

Having fun with the manipulator.

This is the handle of the manipulator. It's a little beaten up, but it still works fine. It does not take any strength to use it.

Another view of the manipulator handle. The two buttons on the top (white and red) allow to move the arm farther or closer to the operator. This way, the operator can remain close to the glass no matter what is the distance of the things he manipulates.

A sample of uranium ore. They give you a simple Geiger counter, and they allow you to personally get a reading for a number of materials.

This is the panel with the materials you could measure yourself with the Geiger counter. The sample which caused the highest readings was, surprisingly, an orange Fiestaware mug. Apparently, the colorant it employed is radioactive, and much more radioactive than uranium ore. People used to have breakfast every day in those things. Scary.

How the "new production reactor complex" looked like in the 70s.

How an uranium fuel element used in the N reactor looked like.

On the back, the ground-breaking for reactor N, in 1963, with an autograph of President Kennedy, which authorized it.

The guide shows me a picture of how working at the uranium extrusion press was like. Despite the novelty of nuclear technologies and the limited knowledge about their risks, nobody contracted a radiation illness.

After the end of the cold war, most facilities have been reconverted for peaceful purposes. Some of the industries here work on titanium, which allows to manufacture strong and lightweight structures.