Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Bill Cease

Reactor OperatorHanford, WA

B Reactor/100 AreaResearch & Development/300 AreaTinian Island
Manhattan Project VeteranProject Worker/Staff
The first large-scale nuclear reactor in history, the B-Reactor, in Hanford, Washington Listen to Bill Cease’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Bill Cease worked in the 100 and 300 areas at Hanford, working as a patrolman and later as an operator at B Reactor and D Reactor. His wife Louise Cease accompanied him to Hanford, and worked at Penney’s. Alhough they were originally from Connecticut, the Ceases settled in Richland, located near Hanford, after the war.

Related Profiles

Ralph Brooks

Y-12 Plant

Ralph Brooks worked for the Tennessee Eastman Corporation at the Y-12 Plant.

Eugene L. Hanse

Tinian Island

Eugene L. Hanse served in the 1st Ordnance Squadron. 

H. M. Ellis, Jr.

Oak Ridge, TN

H. M. Ellis, Jr. worked for the Roane-Anderson Company.

Adolph Zorner

Chicago, IL

Adolph Zorner worked at a shop at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Lab (“Met Lab”) during the Manhattan Project.