Nuclear Museum Albuquerque

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, New Mexico - darkometer rating : 7 - As you will probably have guessed from the name, this is the USA 's main museum about nuclear science and energy but more importantly it's mostly about the very darkest aspect of all of this: nuclear weaponry and their apocalyptic potential for world destruction expecially during the Cold War era. > 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: For topical background info on nuclear weapons see atomic bomb , and especially Hiroshima & Nagasaki ; for more on the Manhattan Project see in particular Los Alamos & Bradbury Science Museum as well as Trinity . See also under Cold War and related topics. The Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque was first incepted in the late 1960s, and was aligned with the Sandia National Laboratories (which it still is, through main sponsor Lockheed Martin). It was located within the perimeter of Kirtland Air Force Base and became known simply as the National Atomic Museum – even though it wasn't until the early 1990s that it actually received that official accolade "National". A decade on, the museum was moved out of the Air Force Base to increase its accessibility to the general public. However, the new premises in Old Town Albuquerque were too small, so a dedicated new facility was built in the south-west of Albuquerque, again closer to Kirtland AFB, but still outside it. The new museum at its generously spacious premises opened in 2009. What there is to see: a lot – this is the premier museum in the USA about all things nuclear, and in particular nuclear weaponry.