Walter Simon

ChemistHanford, WA

B Reactor/100 AreaDayton, OH

Manhattan Project VeteranScientist

Listen to Walter Simon’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Walt Simon, a chemist, was Hanford’s first Operations Manager. Before joining the Manhattan Project, he was plant manager at Wabash River Ordnance Works, a DuPont plant near Terre Haute, Indiana. He moved to Richland in the summer of 1944. He watched the B Reactor go critical, and then shut down due to the Xenon poisoning.

All images of Walter Simon that appear here are courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library and are not property of the Atomic Heritage Foundation.

Walter Simon’s Timeline

1943 Told about the Manhattan Project by DuPont officials

1944 Moved to Richland

Related Profiles

Thomas Brill

Chicago, IL

Thomas Brill was a research assistant at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago during the Manhattan Project.

Victor B. Waithman

Y-12 Plant

Victor Waithman worked for the Tennessee Eastman Corporation at the Y-12 Plant.

James W. Davis

Hiroshima Mission

James W. Davis served as a master sergeant in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron. He was the flight engineer on the B-29 Jabit III on the Hiroshima mission.

E.W. Slusher

Hanford, WA