The Legacies of the Manhattan Project: Reflections on 75 years of a Nuclear World Conference will be held in Richland, Washington from March 15-18.

The conference will focus on the history of the Hanford nuclear production facilities and the site’s impact on the Tri Cities area.  We expect papers on such topics as: the environmental legacies of nuclear materials production; the politics of science, national security, and the state; atomic diplomacy and the Cold War, among others.  See the website for registration, as well as the schedule.

Jillian Gardner-Andrews (j.gardner-andrews@tricity.wsu.edu), the Project Coordinator, provided an update on the event:

“We are getting closer and closer to the start of the Legacies of the Manhattan Project Conference, and we hope that all of you are as excited as we are. I wanted to take a moment to let all of you know about different events that we have recently added to the conference program.

“The first event is a historic walk on Richland’s Urban Greenbelt Trail (UGT), a 3.2 mile stroll through the city’s center.  Along the way, we’ll stop and look at photos of what the city looked like before the Manhattan Project as well as during its government-owned days. This tour is graciously being led by Richland Parks and Recreation Commission volunteer Nancy Doran. The tour is free and open to the public, will begin at 3:00 on Wednesday March 15th in the lobby of the Richland Red Lion Hotel, and is approximately two hours long. The forecast for Wednesday afternoon is 65 degrees and partly cloudy which will be a nice change from the winter we had. If you are interested in participating in this historic walk before the kick off of our Legacies Conference, please contact me via email or at (509) 372-7447.

“The second event is a tour of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in North Richland. LIGO is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large observatories were built in the United States with the aim of detecting gravitational waves by laser interferometry. The LIGO search conducted from September, 2015 to January, 2016 resulted in the first observation of gravitational waves. This tour which will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday March 16 is being sponsored by the Columbia Chapter of the Health Physics Society. Cost for this tour is $7 (cash or check only). If you are interested in attending this tour please RSVP to Brett Rosenberg at CCHPSExec@gmail.com by close of business on Tuesday, March 14. The LIGO observatory has a limit to the number of people they can host so registration will fill up quickly. Tour attendees will need to leave the Richland Red Lion between 5:15-5:30 on Thursday as it is a bit of a drive out to the LIGO Hanford Observatory. Please let Brett know if you are able to shuttle other conference participants or if you are in need of a ride out to the observatory. The link below provides navigational tips for getting to the LIGO facilities.

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/WA/page/lho-driving-directions

“Please let me know if you have any questions about either of these events or the conference itself. Also, feel free to share this information with other individuals who may be interested.”