Los Alamos

Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos - darkometer rating : 6 - Los Alamos is the place where the USA 's very first nuclear weapons were developed in the Manhattan Project . Today it is still home of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The active lab itself is obviously out of bounds, but you can take walking tours of the formerly "closed" town and catch a glimpse of Robert Oppenheimer 's house and other buildings of significance in the atomic context. The main point of interest, however, is the Bradbury Science Museum . It tells the story of Los Alamos, the development of the atomic bomb and its continuing legacy, features replicas of the Trinity "gadget" as well as of the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki , and also covers the Laboratory's current role in research and stockpile stewardship. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The story of the Manhattan Project and the role Los Alamos played in it is too long to be retold here in any detail – scores of books and other resources already do that sufficiently enough anyway. So only a very brief summary has to suffice here. The Manhattan Project occupied several locations across North America, in particular Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford in Washington State, where the enriched uranium and the plutonium for the Trinity , Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs would eventually be produced, respectively. But for the most crucial and most secret research a much more remote location was soon deemed necessary. Los Alamos was chosen as such a remote location, despite poor access roads. Still, it was here that the "secret Atomic City" would be built.