Qualla: Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/undersecretary-johnson-at-vit-.jpg Qualla: Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb: Introduction https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear/ Photo credit ENERGY.GOV, Public domain. In early 1943, the government condemned 670 square miles of Washington farmland and evicted everyone living there. Construction began immediately on something the workers couldn't name. By summer 1944, the B Reactor was operational - the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor, cooled by Columbia River water, producing the fissile material for the Nagasaki bomb. The workers at Hanford didn't know what they were making until August 1945, when they heard on the radio that the product of their labor had ended World War II. What remained after the war was an industrial complex that continued producing plutonium for nuclear weapons until 1987 - and the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere.

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/c270-hanford-the-secret-city-that-built-the-bomb-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb: The Construction https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear/ Photo credit ENERGY.GOV, Public domain. Building Hanford required erasing what had been there. The towns of Hanford and White Bluffs were evacuated; orchards and farms were condemned. In their place rose a secret city: barracks for 50,000 workers, the highest concentration of construction labor ever assembled in one pl...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/c270-hanford-the-secret-city-that-built-the-bomb-the-construction.mp3 0:06 2 full Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb: The Reactors https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear/ Photo credit ENERGY.GOV, Public domain. Nine plutonium production reactors eventually operated at Hanford, producing the fissile material for America's nuclear arsenal throughout the Cold War. The reactors used uranium fuel, moderated by graphite, cooled by Columbia River water that was returned to the river significan...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/c270-hanford-the-secret-city-that-built-the-bomb-the-reactors.mp3 0:06 3 full Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb: The Contamination https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear/ Photo credit ENERGY.GOV, Public domain. Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere. Decades of plutonium production left behind 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks, many of which are leaking. The Columbia River received radioactive effluent for decades. Groundwater ...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/c270-hanford-the-secret-city-that-built-the-bomb-the-contamination.mp3 0:06 4 full Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb: The Ecology https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear/ Photo credit ENERGY.GOV, Public domain. The exclusion zone around Hanford became, paradoxically, a wildlife refuge. The Hanford Reach National Monument protects the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River in the United States - preserved because no one could build there while plutonium was being produced. The s...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/c270-hanford-the-secret-city-that-built-the-bomb-the-ecology.mp3 0:06 5 full Hanford: The Secret City That Built the Bomb: Visiting Hanford https://qualla.com/hanford-nuclear/ Photo credit ENERGY.GOV, Public domain. The B Reactor at Hanford Site is accessible through public tours offered by the Department of Energy, typically spring through fall; advance registration required. The reactor is located within the secured Hanford Site; visitors must pass security screening. The REACH Museum in R...

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]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/2/7/0/hanford-nuclear-wk/c270-hanford-the-secret-city-that-built-the-bomb-visiting-hanford.mp3 0:06 6 full