ABSTRACT
The Hanford nuclear site in the arid expanse of southeastern Washington State
was home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production facility. The frigid
waters of the mighty Columbia River and the isolation of this vast desert region
drove Lt. Col. Franklin Matthias [1] to target the area as the future location of a
secret atomic city-part of the Manhattan Project launched in 1942 to develop
and build atomic bombs [2].
