On Tuesday, July 25, 2017, the National Park Service and the Department of Energy joined the Port of Benton for a ceremony dedicating the newly renovated Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) Interim Visitor Center, at 2000 Logston Blvd., in Richland, Washington. The Port of Benton spent over $100,000 on new exhibits and other improvements to enhance visitor experience at the center. 

Public tours of the B Reactor National Historic Landmark and the Pre-Manhattan Sites leave from the visitor center. This year, docent-led tours will be available Monday through Saturday until November 18, 2017. Reservations can be made online at https://manhattanprojectbreactor.hanford.gov/index.cfm. Tours are free, open to all ages, and cameras are allowed. The B Reactor has been open for annual public tours since 2009, and gets more than 10,000 visitors each year. The facility has been toured by guests from all 50 states and more than 80 countries worldwide.

The B Reactor National Historic Landmark, part of the Hanford Unit of MAPR, is the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Created as part of the top secret Manhattan Project during World War II, B Reactor produced the plutonium used in the Trinity test (the world's first nuclear detonation) in July 1945, and the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

In addition to Hanford, Washington, MAPR includes sites in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

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Established November 10, 2015, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) is managed through a collaborative partnership by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to preserve, interpret, and facilitate access to key historical resources associated with the Manhattan Project.

MAPR Hanford dedication ceremony.
Colleen French, Hanford Site MAPR Representative, speaks at dedication ceremony for the newly renovated interim visitor center.