The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Eric at the National Museum
of Nuclear Science & History

A large-scale Periodic Table

of Elements in the entry

Today we are focusing on
Uranium & Plutonium.

Atomic theory goes back to the Greek philosopher Democritus.  The theory was refined and built upon throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.  Experimentation added more information and by X-Rays were discovered in 1895.

X-Ray machines were used to

 measure people's feet

for shoes.

Numbers on watches & alarm

clocks were coated with radium

to make them illuminate at night.

After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933, anti-Jewish laws deprived Jews of their civil rights.  More restrictions followed, making life in Germany untenable and leading many Jews to relocate.  Among the emigres were scientists.  Experiments with nuclear materials continued in countries around the world.  In 1938, nuclear fission was achieved in Berlin, Germany.

Following the Hahn-Straussmann fission experiment, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt, detailing the military uses of nuclear generated explosions and asking for funding.

America entered World War II on December 8, 1941.  The Manhattan Project geared up to develop the atomic bomb.

A boy's school in Los Alamos

was taken over to house the

atomic bomb development

group.

Emigre scientists working in 

England Otto Frisch, Rudolf

Peirles, Josef Rotblat working

in England with James Tuck 

contributed to the Manhattan 

Project.

The high grade uranium needed to develop the atomic bomb was refined in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a remote area with access to abundant water, rail lines, usable roads and vast amounts of electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority.  

Little Boy, long & green, was

dropped on Hiroshima on

August 6, 1945.

Fat Boy, stubby & yellow was

dropped on Nagasaki on

August 9, 1945.

The Atomic Age had begun.  Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945.  The United States continued its atomic bomb program and it needed uranium. 

The Uranium Cafe sign

in Grants, New Mexico.

Uranium was mined from 1947 through the early 1960s in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, pumping much needed money into the local economies.

Uranium colors these 

pieces of glassware.

Uranium jewelry was

very popular & continues
to be sought after by
collectors

In 1949 the Soviets detonated their first nuclear bomb.  The nuclear arms race was on.

The wartime Civil Defense

Program retooled to provide

guidance to U.S. citizens

during the Cold War.

The Duck and Cover Program included commercials and duck and cover drills in the schools.

Some Americans built or

bought bomb shelters &

stocked them with supplies

to wait out nuclear fallout.

Although a fearful time, the Atomic Age was entertaining....

Roy Rogers foils uranium 

thieves in Bells of Coronado.

Uranium miner "Blix" Waterberry

wanders onto a nuclear

test range & becomes...

The Atomic Kid.

Everybody wanted a Geiger counter.

The Super Atomic Geiger 

Counter was just one of the 

atomic toys kids clamored for.

There was lots of atomic stories to read.

Learn How Dagwood

Splits the Atom

Atomic Rabbit

More bombs were being built and mounted on planes, rocket launchers, warships and in submarines. Silos were built around the country to house Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

The Davy Crockett is a
bazooka-type missile with
a W54 warhead.

The Trident I C-4 is a

submarine launched

ballistic missile.

American and Russian nuclear stockpiles grew, and there were nuclear weapons accidents, called Broken Arrows, 32 in all since 1950.  

Other countries wanted "the bomb" too.  The United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have nuclear weapons. 

Starting in the early 1960s non proliferation treaties were negotiated between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.  Over time, more countries became signatories.  Six nations negotiated a treaty with Iran, just this year, to slow that country's nuclear program.  

Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia have been decommissioning  their nuclear weapons and storing the fissile materials.  

On the domestic side, nuclear power generation provides electricity for the U.S. power grid.  There are currently 61 nuclear power plants with 99 reactors.  Nuclear power generation also carries risks. On March 28, 1979 a series of mechanical and human failires at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania led to a partial reactor core meltdown and atomic particles were released into the atmosphere.  

Eric and I learned a lot at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  We both wish we had visited this museum before the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos.  The information presented here provided context for the development of the atomic bomb in the labs there.