English: The T Plant was the first chemical processing and separations plant of its kind in the world. Construction began in 1943, with the plant becoming operational in 1945. Nicknamed the “Queen Mary” since T Plant was long and thin like the well known ocean liner, this facility was used to take the irradiated fuel rods that had been in the B Reactor and expose them to a series of chemical processes. The chemicals were needed to dissolve away the fuel rods themselves, allowing workers to access and then extract the tiny amount of plutonium that was produced when the rods were involved in nuclear chain reactions in the reactors.