DOE, Interior to sign agreement for Manhattan Project Park on Nov. 10

Posted at 3:25 pm October 25, 2015
By Oak Ridge Today Staff 1 Comment

Now demolished, the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building, pictured above, was once used to enrich uranium for atomic weapons and commercial nuclear power plants. Located in west Oak Ridge, the site could become part of a Manhattan Project National Historical Park. There is a separate effort to preserve the site’s history; that work could be incorporated into the new park. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)

The U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Energy will sign an agreement on Tuesday, November 10, that establishes the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.

The memorandum of agreement, or MOA, will be signed by federal officials that Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C.

Besides Oak Ridge, the park will include Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Hanford, Washington.

For more than a decade, the Department of Energy and the National Park Service, in cooperation with other federal agencies, state and local governments, and stakeholders, have worked to create the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. On December 19, 2014, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, which included provisions authorizing the steps to establish the park.

Once signed, the MOA will officially establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park as a unit of the National Park System. The MOA will formally describe how the National Park Service and the Department of Energy will work together to preserve, protect, and provide access to the historic resources associated with the Manhattan Project.

The Manhattan Project was a top-secret World War II program to build the world’s first atomic weapons.

The B Reactor in Hanford is included in the new Manhattan Project Park, and there are four DOE sites in Oak Ridge that are eligible for inclusion: the former K-25 Building at East Tennessee Technology Park, the Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and buildings 9731 and 9204-3 at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The Alexander Inn, a non-DOE site, is also eligible to be included.

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