Page 169 - Beyond Decommissioning

150 Beyond Decommissioning

Fig. 6.6 The inside of B reactor, Hanford site, WA, USA, now open to visitors.
Credit to US DOE.

historical guidance. A public opinion movement, led by the B Reactor Museum Asso-
ciation, called for the preservation of this cultural site. This movement managed to
prevent the removal of the reactor. The Hanford B Reactor was proclaimed a National
Historic Landmark in 2008. This designation does not guarantee the reactor will never
be dismantled, but it opens the gate for continuing public tours and for becoming
closer to a museum status. B Reactor is included in the Manhattan Project National
Historical Park, consisting of historic facilities at Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak
Ridge, which was approved by the US Congress in December 2014.
A memorandum of agreement between the National Park Service and the DOE has
been drafted to define their respective roles in managing the park. BRMA (2016) tells
you the story of the National Park Service, status of B Reactor, schedule of public
tours, etc.
The B Reactor case suggests that this approach can be applied at commercial NPPs.
Nonnuclear sites provide a different model. Gasworks Park at Seattle, Washington is
an 8-ha site, which has incorporated both preservation and adaptive reuse, while pro-
viding access and entertainment to the public. The Gas Plant produced gas from coal
and was later modified to process crude oil. The plant closed down in 1956. The city
acquired the site in 1962 and opened it to the public in 1975. The redevelopment con-
cept incorporates pieces of the industrial plant as relics, and the reuse of portions of
the structures. For example, the former boiler house was reused as a picnic shelter and
the former exhauster-compressor building was adapted as a children’s play barn. The
transition from industrial to new uses was not a trivial task and the public debate was
heated. Gas Works Park remains a rare and intelligent case of adaptive reuse, a