Oregon Public Broadcasting

The old B Reactor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation doesn't look like it's going to be a National Park anytime soon. But the National Park Service says there are ways to increase public access to the site.

The agency held a public hearing on that idea Thursday in Richland as correspondent Anna King reports.

The B Reactor, at Hanford, was part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. But now many of the sites associated with the race to build a nuclear bomb are disappearing.

The National Parks Service came out with a study in December on how to save some of that history for the public.

Some of the study's options include: increase access to places like Hanford and others in New Mexico, Tennessee and Ohio.

It would happen through non-profits or by association with the National Parks. But the study's conclusion says turning the B Reactor into a National Park won't work.

Keith Dunbar is with the National Park Service in Seattle.

Keith Dunbar: "We want to emphasize existing institutions without building a lot of new infrastructure and a lot of new visitor's centers, cause that's not cost effective to build and it's also expensive."

Congress will make the final decision on the fate of the sites. Public comment on the plan will be accepted until March 1st.

Online:

For more information: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/mapr