To members of the B Reactor Museum Association, the reactor is not a cold, gray shadow stretching across a half-century.

It is a living monument to the men and women who built Hanford in war and peace, leaving a legacy of historic proportions.

"It was the first full-scale reactor ever in the world," said Fran Berting, a scientist with Battelle-Northwest. She is also president of the B Reactor Museum Association.

The nonprofit association hopes to preserve the reactor building and create a place for public viewing and education.

Jim Stoffels, a founding member of the association, said he was moved six years ago by a visit to the B Reactor.

"Entering the building was like a step back in time," Stoffels said.

Even so, he was "in awe at the mind-boggling technology it represented."

Enrico Fermi's first small, controlled nuclear reaction in Chicago on Dec. 2, 1942 had in just under two years led to the mammoth reactor that produced plutonium that helped end World War II.

"The second feeling I had was one of excitement that also must have been felt by the participants of the Manhattan Project," Stoffels said.

About 1989, Stoffels and others began working on the idea of preserving the reactor. The association was incorporated Jan. 22, 1991.

It has three goals, Berting said:

-- To open the B Reactor building to the public through easy immediate access. Presently, it is open only by escorted tours.

-- To establish an interpretive center providing information and displays in downtown Richland. It would tell the stories of the B Reactor and the Hanford way of life.

-- To preserve the memories of early Hanford workers.

"We're videotaping interviews," Berting said. "There are about 50 on a list in town or the general area."

Thirteen of the one-hour videos have been completed by North Pacific Film and Tape of Seattle, she said.

The association is working in conjunction with the Three Rivers Cultural Coalition in trying to establish a cultural center, Berting said.

The B Reactor interpretive center would be included as part of the cultural center for the overall history of the area, she explained.

"The engineering (of the B Reactor) was such that it was really a tribute to the engineers at the time," Berting said. "They anticipated what they would do if they ran into one problem or another.

"They also built redundancy in safety measures, so they had safety in mind quite clearly," Berting continued. "The principles are such they're still using them today."

Stoffels, a physicist at Hanford and also a peace activist, said he can see both facets of the reactor - its technological achievements and how some would compare it with the Nazi death camps of World War II because so many Japanese civilians were killed by the atomic bombs. But, it is historically significant and must be preserved, he said.

"For better or worse, it's a historical artifact that changed the world," he said.

The B Reactor has been recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Nuclear Society, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and is in the National Registry of Historical Places.

Petitions are being circulated by the association for saving the reactor. The U.S. Department of Energy will decide its fate.

For more information about the B Reactor Museum Association, contact Berting at 967-3924