Hanford B Reactor tours are closed for roof work

As of November 2026, you cannot walk through the Hanford B Reactor. The National Park Service says the reactor is closed to public access while the Department of Energy replaces its roof and finishes other preservation work, and the department's own B Reactor tour page says those tours are suspended and projected to resume in late summer 2027. The one public tour that reaches the site, a free four-hour bus ride from the visitor center in Richland, only stops outside the reactor's fence, and its 2026 dates ended September 26.

The hook is the building's survival. A local museum association formed in 1990 to save it from demolition, the Department of Energy says, and as recently as 2008 plans still called for the reactor and its exhaust stack to be taken down as part of the Hanford cleanup. That year it became a National Historic Landmark instead, and tours began in early 2009. The roof work that closes it to visitors is part of that preservation.

Can you tour the B Reactor in winter?

No, and the reason is not winter. The Department of Energy runs the B Reactor tours, and its tour page for them reads, on the day it was read, November 2, 2026: "The Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) B Reactor tours are suspended due to major construction projects." The page was last updated April 22, 2026. The National Park Service page on Hanford tours, last updated August 14, 2025, says the reactor is "closed to public access while the DOE replaces the roof and completes other important historic preservation work on the reactor." The Park Service's Hanford visitor center page says the same about access being suspended.

When will B Reactor tours start again?

The Department of Energy's page says tour operations "are projected to resume in late summer 2027." A projection is not a booking, and this page gives no 2027 dates or sign-up details because none were posted when it was written. The rule: the department that owns the reactor sets the schedule and posts it on its B Reactor tour page, and the Park Service pages send readers to that page for updates. If the roof work runs long, that is the page to check.

When is the Hanford historic tour season?

Each year the Department of Energy posts a season on its Pre-WWII Historic Facility Tours page. For 2026 the page, last updated May 6, 2026, listed selected dates from May 1 through September 26. Starts were 10 a.m. in May, June and September and 8 a.m. in July and August, and registration was set to open April 1, 2026, at 8 a.m. Nothing is offered in winter, and the page publishes no 2027 dates. If 2027 follows the same shape, the registration date is the one to watch, but only the page can say so, and a spring opening for 2026 is not a promise for the next year.

What does the historic tour cover, and does it include the reactor?

It includes a look at the reactor from the bus and nothing more. The Department of Energy lists the stops as the Bruggemann Warehouse, the B Reactor ("Outside fence/ Remain on bus"), the Allard Pump House, the White Bluffs Ferry Landing, the First Bank of White Bluffs and Hanford High School. The tour is free, open to all ages and about four hours, it starts and ends at the visitor center at 2000 Logston Blvd. in Richland, and there are restrooms at one stop midway. No food or drink is sold at the visitor center. Group and school tours are suspended, the department says, until B Reactor tours resume.

Who lived at Hanford before the reactor?

The Department of Energy's tour page puts the number of residents of Hanford and White Bluffs who lost their homesteads and orchards at about 1,500, and says Native American Tribes were moved too, in 1943. The Park Service says the government took the towns and surrounding farms by eminent domain that year, which is the legal power to take property for public use. At the White Bluffs bank, it says, you can see the only structure left from the town where farmers went to shop and socialize. That is the part a local paper can add: this is a tour about people who were moved out, as much as about a machine.

Why does the B Reactor matter?

The Department of Energy calls it the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor, built by DuPont for the Manhattan Project. Construction began in October 1943, fuel was loaded on September 13, 1944, and the reactor reached full power in February 1945. Its plutonium went into the Trinity Test and the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. It shut down at the end of 1946, restarted in 1948 as Cold War tension grew, and shut down for good on February 12, 1968. Congress created the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which also covers Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, in a law signed December 19, 2014, and it is one of the national park sites in Washington.

The department notes one detail about the machine: no moving parts, and a crew of fewer than 20 people. The sound inside was the flow of Columbia River water through the reactor to cool it.

What can you do in the Tri-Cities when the tours are closed?

The Hanford Visitor Center is the open door. The Park Service lists it as open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to noon and on weekends, as read on November 2, 2026. It also lists closures on Thanksgiving (November 26, 2026), December 24 and 25, New Year's Day 2027 and Washington's Birthday (February 15, 2027). The park charges no admission at its visitor centers. The Park Service offers a virtual tour of the B Reactor on its site and self-guided tours in its app. The ranger programs called Atomic Explorations were scheduled for May 25 through September 5, 2026, so none run in winter. The center's phone number, (509) 376-1647, is the one both agencies give for questions.

Is it a day trip from Enumclaw?

This page has no official mileage, so it will not make a promise. Hanford is in southeastern Washington, on the far side of the Cascades from Enumclaw, and the way over is a winter question of its own: the Enumclaw to Yakima winter guide covers the pass choices and chain rules, and the Yakima Canyon drive guide covers one road on the way. A mapping service will give the drive time. For other Eastern Washington winter stops, see the guides to Dry Falls and the Ice Age floods and Palouse Falls State Park in winter.

Before you go

Check three things on the day. First, the Department of Energy's B Reactor tour page, for the status of the reactor and any 2027 schedule. Second, the Pre-WWII Historic Facility Tours page, for the next season's dates and when registration opens. Third, the Park Service's Hanford tours page and its alerts page, for closures. The tour coordinator is reachable at 509-376-1647. Tour rules and what to bring are in the department's visitor orientation, linked from the tour page.