On Tuesday, February 19, 2013, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, visited the B Reactor at Hanford. B Reactor Tour Manager Russ Fabre gave Wyden and his staff a guided tour, explaining the science and history behind the historic B Reactor, which produced plutonium for the Manhattan Project’s atomic bombs.
Wyden pledged support for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act. As the bill must move through his committee to the full Senate, his support is crucial. Wyden explained that Hanford, and the other Manhattan Project sites in Tennessee and New Mexico, “need to be preserved so future generations understand what went on here.” Wyden noted, “The last Congress was the first in decades to not pass legislation to protect our special places.” He vowed, “I’m going to work very closely with Chairman Hastings [of the House Committee on Natural Resources] to change that.”
Wyden’s father, Peter Wyden, was a historian and author of Day One: Before Hiroshima and After (Simon & Schuster, 1984). His father’s influence was evident in Wyden’s statement that “There is an old saying that those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
With Senators Wyden, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Representative Hastings and members of the Tennessee and New Mexico delegations strongly supporting the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act, we continue to be optimistic that the 113th Congress will pass the legislation.
Click here to view photos of Wyden’s visit on the U.S. Department of Energy at Hanford’s Facebook page.