A plan to turn part of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation into a national park has been dropped from a compromise defense authorization bill moving through the U.S. Congress.
The idea is to designate Hanford’s B Reactor as part of the Manhattan Project National Park, along with sites at Los Alamos, New Mexico and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Maynard Plahuta, the president of the B Reactor Museum Association based in the Tri-Cities, says he is undeterred by the setback.
“We are going to keep pushing for this, all of us that are involved in this, all three sites, for getting this thing established,” Plahuta said.
Another piece of legislation that would create the park has passed through the U.S. House. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has yet to take up the measure.
