Plutonium First Made: The Path to Nagasaki
Scientists at the Hanford Site in Washington state produced the first significant quantities of plutonium-239 on November 6, 1944, using a graphite-moderated nuclear reactor designed by Enrico Fermi. The B Reactor, the world's first full-scale production reactor, had been built in just 11 months by 50,000 construction workers who were told nothing about its purpose. Plutonium produced at Hanford was shipped to Los Alamos, where it was fashioned into the core of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The Hanford reactors ultimately produced plutonium for most of America's Cold War nuclear arsenal. The site also generated 56 million gallons of radioactive waste that contaminated the Columbia River and surrounding groundwater. Cleanup, begun in 1989, has cost over $60 billion and is expected to continue until 2060.
November 6, 1944
82 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on November 6
Constantius II handed power to a man he genuinely expected to fail. Julian was a bookish scholar, barely tested, given Gaul almost as a placeholder — someone co…
A powerful earthquake destroyed large sections of the Walls of Constantinople, toppling 57 towers and leaving the city exposed. The Byzantine government mobiliz…
Emperor Otto I convened the Synod of Rome at St. Peter's Basilica to depose Pope John XII, citing the pontiff's armed rebellion against imperial authority. This…
King Henry III seals the Charter of the Forest at St Paul's Cathedral, restoring free men's access to royal lands that William the Conqueror and his heirs had r…
He didn't arrive with flags or fanfare. Cabeza de Vaca washed ashore half-dead, part of a doomed expedition that lost 600 men to storms, disease, and disaster. …
He was winning. Gustavus Adolphus had just shattered Imperial lines at Lützen when fog swallowed him whole — and somewhere in that chaos, Sweden's king took a b…
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