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

C. H. Hutchinson

Oak Ridge, TN

C. H. Hutchinson worked for the Roane-Anderson Company.

J. J. Williams

Hanford, WA

Franklin Matthias

Hanford, WA

Colonel Franklin Matthias (1908 – 1993) was the officer-in-charge at the Hanford site. Matthias, a civil engineer, had been a close associate of General Groves since the beginning of the Manhattan Project, and was asked to review sites in the West.

Luther Thompson

Oak Ridge, TN

Thompson worked for Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation.