Corporate Involvement in the Manhattan Project

[Interviewed by Cynthia Kelly and Tom Zannes.] Tell us your name. Steve Buckingham: Steve. S-T-E-V-E. Buckingham. B-U-C-K-I-N-G-H-A-M. (Question off camera) I thought I’d discuss this a little bit of why this location was chosen as the Hanford location, was chosen for the Manhattan District. DuPont was asked to design and build this facility but DuPont […]

In early 1944, DuPont, the operating contractor at Hanford, foresaw the need for four chemical separation facilities. These facilities, designated the T and U plants at location 200-West and the B and C plants at location 200-East (the C plant was never built), would be located approximately ten miles south of the reactors. The separation […]

The B Reactor at Hanford was built and operated by DuPont and was the world’s first production-scale nuclear reactor. B Reactor was the first of three plutonium reactors constructed in the 100 area during the Manhattan Project. Design of the B Reactor The design was based on the success of Enrico Fermi’s “Chicago Pile I” […]

Located at 3280 Broadway, the Nash Garage Building was originally an automobile dealership which was purchased by Columbia University and converted into a pilot plant to create the barrier material for Oak Ridge, TN’s K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. While the theory surrounding this process was relatively simple, producing a functional barrier was another matter. The […]

Dayton, Ohio was another site of the secret Manhattan Project work. In July 1943, Oppenheimer assigned Charles A. Thomas the task of separating polonium for use as the initiator of the bombs. Polonium, which was discovered by physicist Marie Curie, is a peculiar, soft metal which is dangerous to inhale and very difficult to produce. […]

Cynthia Kelly: Why don’t you start, George, by telling us your name and spelling it. George Mahfouz: I’m George Mahfouz, last name is spelled M-A-H-F-, as in Frank, -O-U-Z, as in zebra. Kelly: Is that Egyptian?  Mahfouz: It’s Middle Eastern. The name is Syrian.  Kelly: Anyways, sorry, next question—tell us about your background, you know, where you went to college… […]

Cindy Kelly: Give me your name and spell it. Graydon Whitman: My name is Graydon Whitman, G-R-A-Y-D-O-N W-H-I-T-M-A-N. Kelly: Great. Okay, can you tell us a little bit about your background: where you’re from and how you happened to become part of the Manhattan Project? Whitman: I was born in Ohio and had basic training in […]

Hanford, Washington, on the beautiful Columbia River, was the site selected for the full-scale plutonium production plant, the B Reactor. Today a popular tourist desination, the Hanford Site proved crucial to the success of the Manhattan Project.  Site Selection In December 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers worked with DuPont to establish criteria for the […]