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Senate orders study on making Oak Ridge bomb plants a park

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KNOXVILLE (AP) — Some lawmakers would like to see the old plants in Oak Ridge and other cities that were part of the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear bomb incorporated into the national park system.

A U.S. Senate committee passed on Wednesday a bill calling for the Interior Department to study whether plants in Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, N.M., and Hanford, Wash., should become national parks.

The study would not begin unless it was approved by the full Senate, House of Representatives and the president.

Under the plan, the National Park Service would be responsible for maintaining the 60-year-old buildings in Oak Ridge and opening them for public tours.

The X-10 Graphite Reactor in Oak Ridge, built in 1943 to produce plutonium for development of the atomic bomb, already offers tours part of the year.

Products made at Oak Ridge’s K-25 and Y-12 plants were used in the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Park service officials are not against the study, but they are concerned abut the cost of managing the plants.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., introduced the bill, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he supports it.

The Department of Energy, which runs the plants in Oak Ridge, hasn’t taken a stance on the proposal.

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Information from:

The Knoxville News Sentinel: http://www.knoxnews.com

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