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The science that went into Hanford's early years was quite remarkable and included efforts from scientists at universities and government laboratories across the U.S.  Interestingly, several scientists were not U.S. citizens, but rather Europeans who had fled the Nazis.

How Does A Nuclear Reactor Work?

A nuclear (nook-lee-er) reactor that makes electricity uses the nuclear reaction to heat water, which in turn drives a steam turbine and makes electricity. The only energy producing nuclear reactor in the Northwest is located on the Hanford Site.  To find out more about nuclear energy visit Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station.

NOTE!  We can't tell you how they enriched the uranium or made the weapons grade plutonium in the early reactors.

That's top secret!

SCRAM!

When a nuclear reaction reaches a certain intensity it can "run away" or "go critical", which could be deadly.  The way to stop a reaction is to put a barrier between the reactor rods.  At Fermi's lab in Chicago, they had a single control reactor and there was only one way to stop a runaway reaction.  A set of rods were mounted on a frame and hung from a rope.  An axe was mounted near where the rope was secured.  A student would stand near this device, ready to cut the rope, dropping the control rods into the reactor core if it started to "go critical".  Thus the expression SCRAM comes from the acronym for Safety Control Rod Axe Man!

Nuclear plants in the US are extremely safe and have many controls, both mechanical and human, to prevent accidents.  Once a major reactor did have a "melt-down" at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986). 

This wonderful site explores Chernobyl as it is today.  A major difference between American reactors and Chernobyl is that ours have super thick walls made of concrete, which blocks radiation.

Boys Club

Albert Einstein

Einstein was a physicist.  He was identified as a Jew in 1932 by the Nazis, and came to the US in 1933 to avoid persecution. 

When World War II began, Einstein wrote several  letters to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the possibility of Germany's building an atomic bomb and urging the U.S. to engage in nuclear research.  He worried that the Germans would create a weapon of mass destruction and thought we should beat them to it.

Read Einstein's letters (use the back button on your browser to come back here.)

 

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer was born in New York City.

While he was proud of his scientific achievements, he was saddened at the death and destruction his creation caused telling president Truman, "I have blood on my hands."

Sadly, despite all he did to help the U.S. win the war, Oppenheimer was the victim of a 'witch hunt' during the 1950's because of his alleged friendships with Communists. 

 Later, Oppenheimer was opposed to development of the hydrogen bomb and supported arms control

Learn more about Oppenheimer here.

For more about the first bombs click here.
Enrico Fermi

Fermi was the physicist who, on December 2, 1942, supervised the first man-made and self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, resulting in the controlled release of nuclear energy.

Fermi and his students built the reactor in a squash court under the stands of an unused football stadium at the University of Chicago. 

Fermi wrote many important papers, and won a Nobel prize in physics in 1938, at the age of 37.  He lived 'til 1954.

 

Glen Seaborg

Seaborg discovered the element plutonium and dubbed it Pu in the periodic table because he thought it was funny when people said it!

At thirty years old, he worked with Fermi on the atomic bomb, but also signed a letter urging the president not to drop the bomb on Japan before testing it on an uninhabited island.

The final, and heaviest, element in the periodic table was discovered by Seaborg, but not named Seaborgium until after his death in 1999.

Learn more about Seaborg at the Seaborg Center.

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Think only guys were

scientists back then? 

Hardly!

 

 

 

 

Madame Marie Curie was extremely influential in discovering radium, and the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes.  In 1903, she shared an award in physics with her husband Pierre.  In 1911 she earned her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. 

Madame Curie's efforts were focused on using radiation for medical treatments, and she helped invent the X-ray.  There are many books on Marie Curie if you're interested in science or women's history.  Click here to learn more about her.

Chien-Shiung Wu participated in the Manhattan Project during World War II.  She developed the process of separating Uranium-235 from Uranium-238 by gaseous diffusion.  Her work also led to the development of more sensitive geiger counters.

The lady on the ladder in the picture above left is Wu.

 

Dr. Leona Woods Marshall was a young Ph.D. physicist at the Hanford Engineering Works.  She was there for the start-up of B-Reactor and she performed many of the early production test calculations aimed at improving reactor performance. 

In 1946, Mademoiselle magazine chose her as one of the "Top 10 Women of 1945". 

Pretty cool huh?

 

Click here to learn more about Radiation.

For more information on nuclear science visit Lawrence Livermore Lab's ABC's of Nuclear Science Website.

The American Nuclear Society has another good site on nuclear science.

Learn more about the Hanford Site, follow the links below.

       

Are you interested in having a classroom presentation on Hanford?  We've got cool, hands-on projects to help kids understand the challenges and importance of Hanford Cleanup.  Please email Ginger Wireman - Environmental Education and Outreach Specialist, or call 372-7935.mailto:gwir461@ecy.wa.gov