Workers in protective suits cleaning up a nuclear site.

During World War II and throughout the Cold War, the Hanford Works in Eastern Washington produced plutonium for atomic weapons. The use of these weapons led to enormous loss of life in Japan, an arms race, and unprecedented levels of contamination of the landscape at home. Even today, the massive scale of the Hanford Site often overshadows the stories of the people who built it, worked there, and are cleaning it up.

Join Steve Olson, author of The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age, and Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project, for a discussion of the stories of scientists, farmers, engineers, laborers, and bureaucrats they have uncovered.

History Café is produced as a partnership between HistoryLink and MOHAI.

Detailed information on how to participate will be provided via email following your registration. Space is limited, so register soon!

Real-time, automated captioning is available during the program. For additional support, contact [email protected].

As a catalyst for relevant community conversation, MOHAI’s public programs include a diverse range of speakers and perspectives related to life in our region, past and present. In presenting this program MOHAI does not endorse or advocate any specific policies represented by the speakers, their organizations, or the co-presenters.

Photo: Hanford History Project