Latinx Experiences at Hanford: Carlos Leon

Carlos in the N reactor control room, 1981

Photo courtesy of Carlos Leon

Many people in the Tri-Cities have origin stories that include migration, dedication to family, hard work and contributions to the community. The origin stories of Latinas and Latinos are no different. The Hanford Latinx Experiences oral history interviews share the experiences of just a handful of the many Latinas and Latinos who have contributed unique skills to the development of the Manhattan Project, to Hanford, and to the Tri-Cities. These stories reflect the lives of many people who helped build a place that hundreds of thousands call home today.

Carlos Leon holds strong roots in multiple communities of Eastern Washington, having been born in Toppenish in the 1950s and living in the Tri-Cities for over fifty years. At the age of twenty-one, Carlos became the first Latino reactor operator to work at Hanford. In his interview with Robert Franklin, Carlos talks about his experiences getting certified as a reactor operator, the friends and mentors he had while working in the N-Reactor, his advanced role in training reactor operators, and what he thinks future generations should know about Hanford and Richland during the Cold War.

Listen to audio clips from Carlos’ interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018

• Carlos describes family in Toppenish

  
  

  Carlos Leon describes family in Toppenish in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/28/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: So, Carlos, when and where were you born?

  Leon: I was born in 1953 in Toppenish. Toppenish Memorial Hospital.

  Franklin: And, what had brought your family to Toppenish?

  Leon: Oh, golly. My grandparents were all born in Mexico. My dad in Texas; my mom in Kansas. And then, my mom’s parents moved to Toppenish early ‘40s. Then, my dad’s parents moved while my dad was in the service. When he moved back, he moved back to Toppenish. Then making a long story short, that’s where they met.

  Franklin: Were both of those families in agriculture?

  Leon: Yeah, they worked the fields. They worked the fields. My grandparents, my parents and stuff, they worked the field. My dad had a trucking firm that, you know, so he hauled potatoes and peas and all kinds of produce. And that was our summer job, working out in the fields, or in the orchards and stuff with my mom or something like that. So, we were always–we were always busy. So, a lot of the times, really, though–like when you worked, like the potatoes. It’s hot, middle of the summer, and you’d work basically as soon as the sun rose till 10:00 in the morning. All these rows of sacks of potatoes up and down the rows and stuff and everything else. And they’d put them on the trucks, and that’d be the end of the workday. But it was a long and hot workday type of thing. So, we got the afternoon as kids to really actually be kids, too, at the same time. 

• “We didn’t have much, but we had a lot at the same time…”

  
  

  Carlos discusses what brough his family to Toppenish in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/28/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: What was it about Toppenish that drew your family there?

  Leon: Oh, golly. Well, agriculture, really. My mom’s family settled in, I guess, migrant cabins at the Golding farms in Yakima. It was the biggest hop ranch in the world at one time. I don’t know if it still is or not. So, they had cabins and stuff there and eventually they had to sell the house about four blocks away. I didn’t know my grandfather. I was three years old when he died. But my grandmother, his mom, lived with us and nine kids and then my other grandparents lived only like four or five blocks away. So, we were very close and they all knew each other real well. All my aunts and uncles, actually, from both sides of the family know each other. It’s really seamless in a lot of ways. We had a big family and so, yeah, I was very fortunate. We didn’t have much, but we had a lot at the same time.

  Franklin: Mm-hmm, a lot of family members and family gatherings, relationships.

  Leon: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. And, it was Mexican culture, also. So you know, my grandparents didn’t speak any English, so… Hence you heard me speaking Spanish at the Sacajawea Days thing, Heritage Days.

  Franklin: Oh, that was really wonderful. The kids were like… 

  Leon: Oh, I enjoy that tremendously.

  Franklin: They really dug that.

  Leon: I give credit to my parents on all that. My parents were very outgoing and they stressed education and they stressed making people comfortable. That was the biggest thing.

• Carlos Talks About Culture

  
  

  Carlos Leon talks about culture in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: Did your parents want you to… I know a lot of times with immigrant families, the children are often not taught their parents’ language; they want them to learn the language of their adopted country.

  Leon; Well, no, you know, my parents never really said one way or another. My older brother and my younger brother, Rudi, after me, like the first three boys, we kept it fairly, whatever. But the thing is, we were never educated in it. We didn’t read it; we didn’t write it. We spoke to our grandparents with it, and it was all around us with our extended family and stuff, people that visited my parents and that type of thing. So, you learn the, what do you call it, the morays, the norms, of the culture. With the fiestas and that type of thing. And I grew up with the food. When I went to college, I told people, I had to learn how to use a fork. I really did. Because it was just tortillas. And to this day, give me a tortilla and beans and some rice, and I’m happy. You know, in a way, with my kids and stuff, I see them eat kind of like–cool, watching them eat with their hands and stuff. So, there’s part of that there. They aren’t going to have the full meal deal that I had growing up, but with my aunts and uncles that are still around and my brothers and sisters, they impart quite a bit. And I’m really proud of that. I’m really really proud of that.

• Carlos answers an ad in the paper for a reactor operator

  
  

  Carlos discusses answering an ad in the paper for a reactor operator with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Leon: … ad in the paper, reactor operator? Sure, why not?

  Franklin: Really? You answered an ad in the paper?

  Leon: Ad in the paper.

  Franklin: Do you remember–a paper in Cheney?

  Leon: No, no, I was actually, during the summer, it was a Tri-City paper. I think it was my uncle that called and said, “Hey, there’s an ad in the paper for…” And I saw it. I think it was in the Yakima Herald also. I’m kind of blurry about that.

  Franklin: What did you know about Hanford when you took that interview?

  Leon: Oh, golly. Well, I guess a couple things. You know, I remember the Kennedy thing, because that was covered. That was in the news. That was everywhere. I mean, eastern Washington, are you kidding? I mean, the President of the United States?! I know the Herald and the Tri-Cities really covered it and that type of thing. But also, the Yakima paper, Toppenish–that’s what we got, the Yakima Herald, all the time. I remember that. And then, driving truck for my dad in potatoes, like going to Othello, we’d be driving out 240. And so, you’d see these stacks. You’d see these buildings, see some vapor coming out. And it was just kind of like—you know, now, you’re thinking about it, as I’m looking out. I know the area so well that I was actually looking at… Actually B Reactor would be the one that was the closest to see that. But going on up, you’d see the processing coming out of the 200 West. I tell people this story when I’m on the bus… Back in those days and stuff, if you pulled over for a flat tire or something like that, the Hanford Patrol would be right there, almost immediately, seeing what–if there’s something wrong somewhere. “Hurry up and fix your tire and move on.” Because it was really secret, still.

  Franklin: Yeah.

  Leon: Highly sensitive and all that stuff. So that was my… And then, I knew a lot of smart people worked there, I guess. That’s what it comes down to because all these scientists and all that type of thing. They used to have a school day where they’d have, you know, two or three kids from each school from all over the areas would go and tour Hanford, and they’d show them all that type of thing. So I had a couple friends that did that, and whatever, I wasn’t one of the smart kids. So they went and they’d tell, whatever, that they were picked. They had a good time and all that stuff.

• Carlos works at N-Reactor for over five years

  
  

  Carlos Leon discusses working at N-Reactor for over five years in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: How long did you work at N Reactor for?

  Leon: I worked at N Reactor for four-and-a-half—actually, five-and-a-half years total. Because after I went to college. I went to Pacific University in Oregon and graduated with a degree in science. Plain science; a bachelor’s degree in science.

  Franklin: Just, science.

  Leon: Science. I got 30 hours of physics, math, chemistry and biology.

  … But in reality, you think about that—a lot of people think–I guess, whatever, I live two lives with work. Okay, I know the left brain stuff of reactor operating and thermodynamics and all those other things. But my other part of my life is kind of like I’m playing guitar and goofing off and doing all these other things that I like doing. Creative type of thing. I write songs and that type of thing. So, that’s what I bring to the--you’ve seen me with my tours and stuff.

  Franklin: Yeah, no, you’ve very… 

  Leon: But that’s what I like doing.

  Franklin: Did you come back to Hanford after you graduated?

  Leon: Yes, I did, uh-huh. I worked there for about a year-and-a-half in the training department and teaching new operators, in fact, that came on that are real good friends of mine still, really, when it comes down to it… People still ask me, “Well, what do you do?” I teach reactor operators. I teach people how to run nuclear reactors. Even though it’s not a nuclear reactor, it’s so much simpler just to say something like that than try to explain what I do. But being an instructor is–I’ve just gotten to enjoy it. Whether I know something about a certain subject or not, eventually I’m… I tell, like people at the Vit Plant, “Well, the first time will be a little boring, maybe a little bit more rough. Type of thing. But the second or third time, no prob.” Because you do, you get more comfortable and you know the slides and you know the subject matter. Knowing your audience is probably the biggest thing.

• Carlos talks about B-Reactor and early operators of the Manhattan Project

  
  

  Carlos Leon discusses the B-Reactor and early operators of the Manhattan Project in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Leon: I’m rambling, aren’t I?

  Franklin: No, it’s great. Did you work when you first started, did you work with anybody from the Manhattan Project days? Were any of your coworkers… 

  Leon: Oh, yes, in fact, oh, yes. In fact, my first visit to B was a guy–again, all the reactors were shut down. So all the keys to all the reactors were hung in the control room in a little cabinet in B and stuff. One of the older gentlemen that was there, one of the guys that helped do the training… he has a story that he’s written that you can actually get online. They actually have it. And he talks about that. Anyway, one time when I was the extra man on shift and that type of thing, he said, “You wanna go over to B?” I said, “Sure!” So, again, this was… I'd been there at least a year then. It had to have been ‘75. We got flashlights and stuff and got in the car and drove on over to B. He unlocked the gates and everything. So, we went down the hall. No power anymore. I think I remember it being cool. And shined a light on the front face and stuff. “Whoa!” I said, “That’s more tubes than N.” By that time I knew–but looked very, very similar. I said, “Is that the C elevator there?” “Yeah, that’s the C elevator.” I mean, so all of these different things there, they were very, very similar. I think one of the ways he really wanted me to see this, because I could go in there and not worry about any kind of exposure. And learn about it. And now years later I really realized that that’s what he was doing… But again, I’d ask them questions, but I forget half the answers about that type of thing. But, you know the biggest thing that they would say is, ah, you wouldn’t have existed, you couldn’t have handled all that hard work back then. Oh, you know. They would always kid me with that. But growing up in the family that I did, you know, helped me. Like I told you about my parents, to treat people with respect and that type of thing. But I have a thick skin. When you grow up with nine kids, seven boys, especially, you do. And so, man, they want to banter? “Okay, here I am!” I banter right back. I just loved it. I loved it. Growing up with it all.

• Carlos describes a typical workday as a reactor operator

  
  

  Carlos Leon discusses a typical workday as a reactor operator in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Leon: … Going back to your typical workday type of thing, the typical workday in the control room, it really—a reactor operator likes it boring. 

  Franklin: Sure. Boring and predictable is good.

  Leon: Boring and predictable and everything steady state is a great thing. It’s a great thing to have, really, you know? It gets a little tiresome or whatever, especially during graveyard. But you know, like I said, there was always—we were always talking. We were always talking. Anyway, so a typical day, depending on whether you were at the nuclear console, whether you were at the A console where you had all the turbines and the steam generators or the BN console where you have your dunk condensers and your rad monitor thing and stuff. You always had duties; you always had something that you were doing. If you were the fourth person, you were on relief. You had other surveillances to do and on and on and everything. But if you had an emergency, like a scram, or let’s say something abnormal happened, whatever. Temperature here too high or steam generator levels getting too high or whatever like that, you know, opening up a blow-down valve, and how long, how’s the chemistry looking and that type of thing. All of these various things. There was always something. There was always something. 

• Carlos becomes the first person of Latino background to be a reactor operator

  
  

  Carlos Leon discusses becoming the first person of Latino background to be a reactor operator in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: When you started at N, were there a lot of other–were there any other Hispanic/Latino workers?

  Leon: Oh! Golly. Let me tell—okay, well, now you really are going to make me cry. I was the first person in my family, anybody related to me, to get a college degree. I have cousins and stuff that… They have PhDs and masters and all that type of stuff. I’m very proud of them. But I was the first one. But well when I got on, I didn’t really realize it, but one of the things that… This was at the very beginnings of the equal opportunity, EEO. I really didn’t realize it until after I had been there maybe six months that they’re really pushing me to get certified. They went out of their way a lot to make sure that I saw certain things on a startup, shutdown, and that type of thing, and make sure that I held over, or came out early, and all these different things. It was really kind of against what the union was—you know, the guys that are around, and other shifts. Again, this is where I was really fortunate with my crew. Because my crew, they knew me and they kind of picked up on this. Without even saying certain things. They had a lot of—whatever… In the last, I’d say month and a half before I actually did get certified, I was really actually working quite a bit to learn various aspects. To make a long story short, I was the first Hispanic ever to certify.

  Franklin: At N-Reactor?

  Leon: At N-Reactor. There was other Hispanic workers, but none in reactor operations. So, I didn’t try to make a big deal out of it. I didn’t know how to handle it, let’s put it that way. More than anything else, I didn’t know how to handle it. Would I handle it differently now? Probably, in a way. And then also, it was really unsaid. It was really unsaid in a lot of ways, but you could sense it. So, when I went through my—to get certified, you actually took a written test, very comprehensive. And then, you had a walkaround. It’d be a full day type of thing, a shift. Walk you around and asking you how does this work, how does that work, can you put this on, can you shift this, can you do that, type of thing. Do you know what a water hammer is? And then, in front of an oral board of three people that would ask you all types of questions. Which was a piece of cake. When they asked me—when I went to the board, I was nervous. But at the same time, I was kind of like, “They can’t ask me anything I don’t...” I was that confident, by that time. The day that I got my certificate, a photographer came in and took pictures of me and my shift manager and my control room supervisor and another operator, me standing at the board. And I’ve got that picture. I’m going to show you later. Standing on the board and talking like I’m communicating somewhere. Yeah, it was a real proud day…

• Carlos describes security and secrecy at Hanford

  
  

  Carlos Leon describes security and secrecy at Hanford in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: Could you describe the ways in which security and secrecy at Hanford impacted your work there?

  Leon: [SIGH] Security and secrecy. Well, since it was my first job, really come down to it, besides driving truck, I just took it as the norm. I just took it as the norm. Being in the control room wasn’t so much secret or quote-unquote secure. Because you could just walk right–back then, you could just walk right in. You’d open up your lunch bag or your pack, whatever you’re–whatever, and look in, lunch, close it. Come through. You’d already gone through the Y Barricade, so why–I guess. It was a different kind of security. And secrecy? The only real secret was held by the scientists or the plant manager or the guy who does the fuel calculations on how much plutonium was being generated. We all knew we were making plutonium. We all knew how much exposure everyone was getting, that type of thing. But how much was being processed and being shipped and that type of thing? That was really the only secret. The security of everything. But, no, I never really—the stories, the old stories about whispering and that type of thing? That was when they were building the B Reactor in the early days. By the time 1974 came along, it was a secure area, more than it was a quote-unquote secret area. That was all in the 200 Area with the plutonium finishing Plant and how much they were processing. That was really what… When it came down to it, we just made electricity and plutonium at N.

• Carlos remembers friends while working at Hanford

  
  

  Carlos Leon remembers friends while working at Hanford in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Leon: … boy, never in their wildest dreams would they ever think that B-Reactor would be open the way it is for tourists.

  Franklin: Do you mean the guys that taught you were who were old timers?

  Leon: Yeah. And that’s what I say. Like I say, when I close my eyes and I see all these guys and I see their names and stuff. I’m just… I’m very, very proud. I’m very proud to have been a part of Hanford history. But more important, making friends with who I made friends with. The sad part is, I’ve gone to too many funerals and memorial services and… But at the same time, that’s part of life, and that’s just something that… It’s my makeup now. It’s my makeup. That’s part of my story and stuff. There’s a lot of things that happened that will—that I won’t tell you. They’re going to die with me. A lot of things died with them. It’s not necessary. That’s the way I look at it. You know, being a historian, you know, you want to get into all of the facts and that type of thing. And there’s a lot… 

• Carlos shares what future generations should know about Hanford and Richland during the Cold War

  
  

  Carlos Leon shares what future generations should know about Hanford and Richland during the Cold War in an interview with Robert Franklin on October 5, 2018.

  Date created:

  01/29/2025

  Audio Transcript

  Franklin: So, my last question is what would you like future generations to know about working at Hanford and living in Richland during the Cold War?

  Leon: [SIGH] Wow. Wow. Well, 1974, when I started, in July, Vietnam hadn’t been—the last troops to Vietnam hadn’t left yet. Nixon resigned a month after I started, and it was still the AEC. It wasn’t ERDA, and it wasn't the Department of Energy yet… And you’d talk to the guys in the control room, it’s kind of like, we had no idea how much nuclear arsenal, power, whatever that the Soviet Union had at the time. It was kind of like a race of the two big bullies on the block. There was no backing down from any of the individuals, any of the guys in my control room, any of my crew, any of the other crews. We were there for national defense without a doubt. And that’s what I think kept this place going. They were very proud individuals. I guess that instilled—that’s what it instilled in me, that type of thing. When I was growing up, Toppenish would play Richland High School in basketball. Because there weren’t very many communities, Richland had to play somebody. They had to beat up somebody; they might as well beat up on Toppenish. They would put their green and gold bomb smackdab in the middle of our court. They’d come. Yeah, but they were good. So, I guess maybe when you talk about, when it comes to it, eventually, you could see why they were so proud. They got their “proud of the cloud” type of thing, and it permeated. It permeated the whole Tri-City area. I think that’s probably what—the Cold War was something that I remember, when I was in grade school and going through junior high and high school. This just magnified it, my awareness of it. Because they were always experimenting and stuff. They had what’s called a subtle facility to irradiate different things to see what they could produce and that type of thing. So, it was a long, long, long line of history. I got to say that I am very, very proud to have been part of that. Good, bad, indifferent, it’s what it is.