other AEC operations offices, the Office of Hanford Directed Ciperstions supervised activities, virtually all of which were conducted gt one site by one contractor. By thie time DuPonthad ceased to be Hanford's prime contractor and General Bleciric had acquired the managing and operating contract andassumed responsibility for producing plutonium. As well as overseeing sie olnionnun production activities, the operations office had ic ensure a smooth tranertion from DuPont to General Blectric. inthis period, theilities, such as the Hanford Laboratories, which conducted research on the biclagical effects of radioactive material, were also established at the site. One laboratory mission was the study ofthe effects of radioiodine, which was emitted as 9 waste product from the chemical separations plants. Uantord production facilities expanded from 1947 to 1953 to meet Cokl and Rorean War demanis for more nuclear weagons. During this period five additemal production reactors were built at Hanford Thus the Haniond Onerations Office had to oversee a large construction program while it supervised increasingly efficient plutoniumproduction activities. By 194% approximately 65.000 people ved in the Richland ares, and most of them were employed in the plant or at the operations office. At that time the Hentord plants employed more than one-fourth of all contractor personnel engaged in operating atomic energy plants and two-thirds ofall construction workers engaged im building atomic energy lanes, By the mid 1950s the operations office was overseeing the operation ofeight production reactors at Hanford. The reactors were run sround the clock and onprovements to the three reactors built during the war allowed themto be run at higher then designed power levels. In the 19608, one additional reactor, called the New Production Reactor, went inte operation at Hanford. Tt was 3 dual purpose reactor, designed ta produce phutoniumand electric power. Like the other Hanford reactors, i was graphite moderated and water couled By the mid 1960s the ABChad met all Department ofDelense requirements for nuclear weapons production and had created a huge arsenal of micleer weapons. Accordingly, Presklent Lyndon B. Johnson decided to reduce nuclear materials production and presented it as 4 disarmament measure in bis 1964 State ofthe Union address. As g remull, over the next seven years, the AEC shut down all Hantord production reactors, save for theMew Production Reactor At this time the Hanford areca was a one industry town, Anoroumately $300 people worked either in site plants or inthe operations office Virmally all were denendent directly or imlicectly on plutonium production activities. The ARC, secordingly, tunk steps to keep the ares economicallyviable by urudertaking its Hantord diversification program, auning to bring new industry and contractors intethe ares. The operations office's maior task during the remainder of the decade was te oversee the Hanford diversification program for the ARC. The AEC moved quickly te iaplement the diversification program. In 1064 the AEC committed to the use of multiple contractors at the site and selected Battelle Memorial Institute of Cobumbus, Oho as one ofthe first of them. in 1085 Battelle contracted to run the Hanford Laboratones,