Editing Hanford Site (section)

===Contractor selection===
During [[World War II]], the [[S-1 Section]] of the federal [[Office of Scientific Research and Development]] (OSRD) sponsored a research project on [[plutonium]]. Research was conducted by scientists at the [[University of Chicago]] [[Metallurgical Laboratory]]. At the time, plutonium was a rare element that had only recently been synthesized in laboratories. It was theorized that plutonium was [[fissile]] and could be used in an [[atomic bomb]]. The United States government was concerned that [[Nazi Germany]] was developing a [[German nuclear weapons program|nuclear weapons program]]. The Metallurgical Laboratory physicists worked on designing [[nuclear reactor]]s ("piles") that could irradiate [[uranium]] and transmute it into plutonium. Meanwhile, chemists investigated ways to separate plutonium from uranium.{{sfn|Marceau|Harvey|Stapp|Cannon|2002|p=1.10}}

In September 1942, [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]] [[Leslie R. Groves Jr.]] became the director of the [[Manhattan Project]], as it came to be known.{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=77}} The project to build industrial-size plants for the manufacture of plutonium was codenamed the X{{nbh}}10 project.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|p=1.1}} Groves engaged [[DuPont]], a firm he had worked with in the past on the construction of explosives plants, to design, construct and operate the plutonium manufacturing complex.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|p=105}}{{sfn|Groves|1983|pp=42–44}}{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=97}}

To avoid being labeled as [[merchants of death]], as the company had been after World War{{spaces}}I, DuPont's executive committee insisted that it should receive no payment. For legal reasons, a [[Cost Plus Fixed Fee]] contract was agreed, with a fee of one dollar. The president of DuPont, [[Walter S. Carpenter Jr.]], was given assurances that the government was assuming all responsibility for the hazards involved in the project.{{sfn|Hounshell|Smith|1988|p=339}}{{sfn|Groves|1983|pp=58–59}}