The Hanford site was quite simply a "battlefield of the Cold
War," America's most prolific arsenal of plutonium defense
materials for 40 of the 44 years (1947-1991) that most
historians delineate as the Cold War. The Cold War was the
longest war that ever engaged the United States, and the most
expensive in terms of dollars. In addition, its cost in human
health was not insignificant. Producing materials for the Cold
War helped change nearly every aspect of American society from
where Americans lived, to whether wives worked, to the nature of
communities. Perhaps nowhere else in the United States did the
Cold War come home in the lives of employees and communities as
dramatically as it did at Hanford and in the Tri-Cities.
Beginning of the Cold War The hectic World War II years at the
Hanford Engineer Works (the WWII name for the Hanford site) were
followed by a production lull and period of uncertainty. Many at
HEW and in the region thought the facilities would be dismantled
and the pre-war plan for the land