1945 Aerial Photograph of Worker Housing at the Hanford Nuclear Site.
New York City: ACME Newspictures and N.E.A., August 6, 1945. Photograph measuring 8 ⅝ x 7 inches. With caption, ACME and N.E.A. stamps, manuscript, and later sticker verso. Some buckling at bottom margin; excellent. Item #List3892
A press photo showing an aerial view of the mostly-abandoned construction camp at Hanford, Washington, in 1945. Workers lived in segregated housing in Hanford while they built the Hanford Site nuclear production complex, part of the Manhattan Project. After completion of the Hanford Site, most of the construction housing was abandoned and eventually demolished, replaced by the town of Richland, where the nuclear production workers lived. As the caption puts it, the “‘ghost town’ has now been replaced by a modern, complete community which provides housing for the families of workers at the plant, which is now engaged in producing the ‘atomic bombs.’” Plutonium from Hanford was used in the Trinity test and in the Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki. Hanford released radioactive isotopes into the Columbia River and the air and soil; once decommissioned, it left behind 53 million gallons liquid and 25 million cubic feet solid of radioactive waste. It was put on the National Priorities List in 1988, and is still being remediated.
Price: $175.00