U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz will sign on Tuesday a Memorandum of Agreement to establish the Manhattan Project National Historic Park. The park will have three locations: Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Los Alamos, New Mexico and Hanford, Wash.
National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis will attend the ceremony along with Senators Lamar Alexander, Maria Cantwell and Martin Heinrich, who represent each of the park’s locations.
For more than a decade, the Department of Energy and National Park Service, in cooperation with other federal agencies, state and local governments and stakeholders, have worked to create the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. On Dec. 19, 2014, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, which included provisions authorizing the steps to establish the park.
Once signed, the MOA will officially establish Manhattan Project National Historic Park as a unit of the National Park System. The MOA will formally describe how the National Park Service and the Department of Energy will work together to preserve, protect, and provide access to the historic resources associated with the Manhattan Project.