Editing Hanford Site (section)

===Production process===
{{Further|B Reactor}}{{anchor|Hanford piles}}
Uranium arrived at the Hanford Engineer Works in the form of [[Billet (semi-finished product)|billet]]s. In the Metal Fabrication and Testing (300) Area they were extruded into rods and machined into cylindrical pieces, {{convert|1.569|in|cm}} in diameter and {{convert|8|in|cm}} long, known as "slugs". The initial charge of the three reactors required more than twenty thousand billets, and another two thousand were needed each month. Uranium is highly reactive with water, so to protect the slugs from corrosion by the cooling water they were canned in aluminum after being dipped into a molten bath of copper–tin alloy, and the cap was [[arc welding|arc welded]] on. A defective can could burst and jam in the reactor, stop the flow of cooling water, and force a complete shutdown of the reactor, so the canning process had to be precise.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947f|pp=2.1–2.2}}{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947c|pp=5.48–5.49}}

[[File:Hanford B Reactor.jpg|thumb|left|Workers lay the graphite [[neutron moderator]] of B{{spaces}}Reactor during construction.]]
Irradiated fuel slugs were transported by rail on a special railroad car operated by remote control to huge remotely-operated chemical separation plants about {{convert|10|mi|km|0}} away.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947f|pp=2.7–2.8}} The separation buildings were massive windowless concrete structures, {{convert|800|ft}} long, {{convert|80|ft}} high and {{convert|65|ft}} wide, with concrete walls {{convert|3|to|5|ft}} thick. Inside the buildings were canyons and galleries where [[Bismuth-phosphate process|a series of chemical processing steps]] separated the small amount of plutonium from the remaining uranium and [[fission products]].{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=219–222}}{{sfn|Gerber|1996|p=4–1}}

Items were moved about with a {{convert|60|ft|adj=on}} long [[overhead crane]]. Once they began processing irradiated slugs, the machinery became so radioactive that it would be unsafe for humans ever to come in contact with it, so the engineers devised methods to allow for the replacement of components via remote control.{{sfn|Groueff|1967|pp=292–296}} Periscopes and [[closed-circuit television]] gave the operator a view of the process. They assembled the equipment by remote control as if the area was already radioactive.{{sfn|Groueff|1967|pp=292–296}} To receive the radioactive wastes from the chemical separations process, there were "tank farms" consisting of 64 single-shell underground waste tanks.{{sfn|Marceau|Harvey|Stapp|Cannon|2002|pp=1.21–1.23}}

The first batch of plutonium was refined in the 221{{nbh}}T plant from December 26, 1944, to February 2, 1945, and delivered to the [[Los Alamos Laboratory]] in [[New Mexico]] on February 5, 1945.{{sfn|Findlay|Hevly|1995|p=50}} Two identical reactors, D{{spaces}}Reactor and F{{spaces}}Reactor, came online on December 5, 1944, and February 15, 1945, respectively, and all three reactors were running at full power (250 megawatts) by March 8, 1945.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947f|p=5.5}} By April kilogram-quantity shipments of plutonium were headed to Los Alamos. Road convoys replaced the trains in May, and in late July shipments began being dispatched by air from the airport at Hanford.{{sfn|Findlay|Hevly|1995|pp=50–51}}