B Reactor - Timeline of Major Events

Timeline of Major Events

Year Date Event
1943 October U.S. Army Corps of Engineers breaks ground to build B Reactor
1944 September 13 First Uranium fuel slug loaded into B Reactor
1944 September 26 Initial reactor criticality achieved
1945 February 3 B Reactor Plutonium delivered to Los Alamos
1945 July 16 B Reactor Plutonium used for first nuclear test explosion at Trinity Test Site in Alamagordo, New Mexico
1945 August 9 B Reactor Plutonium used for "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan
1946 March B Reactor operations suspended
1948 June B Reactor operation resumed
1949 March B Reactor begins production of tritium for use in hydrogen bomb
1952 November 1 B Reactor tritium used in first test detonation of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll
1968 January 29 Atomic Energy Commission directs shutdown of B Reactor
1976 Declared National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by American Society of Mechanical Engineers
2008 Declared National Historic Landmark by U.S. Department of Interior and National Park Service
2009 U.S. Department of Energy announces public tours
2011 July National Park Service recommends B Reactor be included in a national historic park commemorating the Manhattan Project.

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