JCon10 Hanford History

	Hanford History Michele Gerber April 10, 9:15am Room: Ice Harbor Meeting Room
Established as part of the Manhattan Project, Hanford was home to the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. During the Cold War the project was expanded and produced about 2/3 of the defense plutonium of the United States. The weapons production reactors have since been decommissioned, but the manufacturing process left behind 53 million gallons of radioactive waste which is now part of major cleanup and decommissioning efforts at the site. Learn the story behind the project that has been so historically significant to Eastern Washington. Click here to download the presentation
	DR. MICHELE S. GERBER is the author of On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site, a comprehensive history of America's first plutonium production complex. The book was re-issued in its fourth edition in 2007, with a new Epilogue about Hanford Site nuclear waste cleanup. Michele Gerber earned a Ph.D. in history with highest honors from the State University of New York at Albany. She has worked at the Hanford Site for 20 years.
She served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Declassification of DOE Documents, and has consulted to the National Park Service, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and many other entities. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Atomic Heritage Foundation (Washington, DC), and past President of the B Reactor Museum Association. She has won numerous awards and honors. She speaks about the Hanford Site all over the world, and is also the author and thousands of pages of documents and articles on Hanford's history. On the Home Front is her second book, and copies are available for sale after the talk.