Oak Ridge X-10: 1944- The Race to the Bomb

US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

The X-10 Graphite Reactor is located on the secure grounds of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In-person visitation is only authorized via guided tours.

Text at the top of this panel reads,“The first gram quantities of purified plutonium are shipped from Clinton Laboratories to Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico.”

Below the text is a photograph showing a bird’s eye view of the Graphite Reactor with other buildings around it and a ridge rising in the background. To the right is a photograph of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory showing several three-story wooden buildings with a small parking lot in the foreground.

Below that is another photograph of Los Alamos, this one showing a bird’s eye view of several long one-story buildings in the background with a dirt road circling in front. At lower right is a windmill. Text to the left reads,“Test are conducted to discover how to improve plutonium recovery efficiency.”

Text on the lower half of the panel reads,“1945. The plutonium separation process by Seaborg’s team is used at the plutonium production reactors at Hanford Engineer Works in Richland, Washington, to produce usable quantities of plutonium-239 for a plutonium bomb.”

Below the text is a bird’s eye view of Hanford Engineer Works showing a long rectangular building in the middle with a more square, blocky building at lower right. A river borders the area in the background with bluffs rising on the far side. To the right is a photo of Glenn T. Seaborg, standing, looking out at us with part of a periodic table of the elements on the wall behind him.