Park Service, DOE seek comment on foundation document for new Manhattan Project park

 

The National Park Service and U.S. Department of Energy are asking the public to review and comment on a draft foundation document for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The park includes Oak Ridge, and it was established in November 2015.

The foundation document is designed to affirm the park’s core mission and significance, its key resources and values, and the interpretive themes that tell its stories, a press release said.

Formally established last November at DOE locations in three states, the park marks the history of the mid-20th Century people, science, and events that led to creation of the atomic bomb in the top-secret effort known as the Manhattan Project.

Foundation documents are guidance tools individualized for each of the National Park Service’s 413 units to direct basic park planning and management, the press release said.

From now through October 10, the draft is available online for public review and comment at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/Manhattan_Project.  Work on the document began last February when a team of NPS and DOE officials held public workshops and met in open houses in the three communities where Manhattan Project research and production centers represent the park: Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Work on the final foundation document is expected to be complete by late 2016.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park was authorized in December 2014 in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015. On November 10, 2015, the U.S. secretaries of the interior and energy signed a memorandum of agreement to establish the park. Under that pact, the NPS operates the park and interprets its history on properties that continue to be owned and managed by DOE. Park visitor centers have been opened at the three locations, which represent stages in the research and production of the first atomic weapons.

Comments on the draft may be submitted online by selecting the Manhattan Project link from the list on the online NPS park planning page at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/Manhattan_Project, clicking the “Open for Comment” link on the left side of the page, then the green “Comment now” box. Written comments also may be mailed to:

Charles Strickfaden

Interim Superintendent

Manhattan Project National Historical Park

P.O. Box 127

Watrous, NM  87753