Free tours at the Hanford site’s historic B Reactor in Eastern Washington, part of a national park, are extended through the 2024 season.

There were no precise construction blue prints and workers on the top secret project did not know what they were building, but B Reactor was completed and went critical in September 1944. The ...

B Reactor also produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, Aug. 9, 1945, just weeks after the Trinity Test. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.

Hanford workers perform various tasks in 1944 at the front face of B Reactor, the world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor. The core sits on 23-foot-thick concrete slab.

Sept. 26 marks 80 years since the B Reactor first went online. We get a tour from Terri Andre, a volunteer docent at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park at Hanford.

As part of the Manhattan project during World War II, the U.S. Government built the world’s first full -scale nuclear production reactor – the B reactor – in Richland in 1944.

Readers respond to our March 22 story "10 Washington road-trip spots recommended by the people who know them best" with more ideas and maybe a little grumpiness.