page_title: Hanford Site
section_title: Site selection
hierarchical_section_title: Hanford Site / Manhattan Project / Site selection
context_page_description: The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including Hanford Project, Hanford Works, Hanford Engineer Works and Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
  Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project in Hanford, south-central Washington, the site was home to the B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first nuclear bomb, tested at the Trinity site, and in Fat Man, the third bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.
  During the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the more than 60,000 weapons built for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Nuclear technology developed rapidly during this period, and Hanford scientists produced major technological achievements.
context_section_description: In September 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers placed the newly formed Manhattan Project under the command of Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, charging him with the construction of industrial-size plants for manufacturing plutonium and uranium. Groves recruited the DuPont Company to be the prime contractor for the construction of the plutonium production complex. DuPont recommended that it be located far away from the existing uranium production facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The ideal site was described by these criteria:
  A large and remote tract of land
  A "hazardous manufacturing area" of at least 12 by 16 miles (19 by 26 km)
  Space for laboratory facilities at least 8 miles (13 km) from the nearest reactor or separations plant
  No towns of more than 1,000 people closer than 20 miles (32 km) from the hazardous rectangle
  No main highway, railway, or employee village closer than 10 miles (16 km) from the hazardous rectangle
  A clean and abundant water supply
  A large electric power supply
  Ground that could bear heavy loads.
  In December 1942, Groves dispatched his assistant Colonel Franklin T. Matthias and DuPont engineers to scout potential sites. Matthias reported that Hanford was "ideal in virtually all respects", except for the farming towns of White Bluffs and Hanford. General Groves visited the site in January 1943 and established the Hanford Engineer Works, codenamed "Site W". The federal government quickly acquired the land under its war powers authority and relocated some 1,500 residents of Hanford, White Bluffs, and nearby settlements, as well as the Wanapum people, Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and the Nez Perce Tribe.
caption: Hanford High after abandonment
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