What better way to start a visit to the first large-scale nuclear reactor in the world than donuts? Not just donuts... Spudnuts!
Spudnuts!
Why are you taking a picture of me eating a donut?
Six bucks!
As the sign says, the B Reactor was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor. It's located on the Hanford Site and is open for tours. You have to park at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Visitor Center in Richland and ride a bus 40 minutes out to the site.
B Reactor wasn't designed to generate electricity - it turned uranium into plutonium for the Manhattan Project (and later nuclear weapons). The core of the reactor is essentially a giant cube of graphite, encased in an 8-inch thick iron thermal shield and thinner steel-and-masonite biological sheilding.
B Reactor operation was a batch process. It was loaded from this side (the "face") with cylindrical uranium "slugs."
Each one of these tubes was loaded with uranium "slugs" (with inert graphite slugs at the ends). When the reaction was done, the slugs were pushed out through the back side of the reactor as the next batch was loaded.
The 2,004 tubes also carried cooling water. When the reactor was running, 75,000 gallons of Columbia River water would pass through the tubes every minute.
Cooling water headers.
Reactor tubes & water pipes. In additon to these horizontal fuel tubes, the reactor had graphite control rods running vertically. The reactor could be shutdown quickly ("SCRAMed") by quickly inserting the control rods or by injecting the reactor with borated water.
The equipment in the foreground was used in the loading process.
Cooling water inlet.
Vacuum tube tester.
Warning signs
This was a radiation detector for workers. It would simultaneously measure radiation levels on each hand and foot.