Science writer Steve Olson explains how plutonium was manufactured at the first full-scale nuclear reactor in the world located in Hanford -- south-central -- Washington State in his new book -- THE APOCALYPSE FACTORY: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age [W. W. Norton & Company; July 28, 2020]. Olson chronicles the discovery and weaponization of plutonium and the unforeseen consequences of the nuclear arms race. He argues that Hanford is the single most important site in the history of the atomic age. Hanford produced the plutonium in the first atomic bomb ever exploded, in New Mexico during the Trinity test, and it manufactured the plutonium in the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

The world’s first full-scale nuclear reactor—which can be toured today—was built at Hanford in just eleven months of frenzied work. All subsequent reactors have been based on the technologies developed there, and plutonium bombs in the United States’ Cold War nuclear arsenal were loaded with material manufactured at Hanford. With this summer marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan, Olson believes that it is finally time for the full story of Hanford to be told.