Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Manhattan Project Events and News

The replica of the Trinity Tower at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, NM. Photo courtesy of the Museum.
Fall is a great time to enjoy a number of Manhattan Project-related events around the country. This Saturday, Hanford, WA, will host a “Ride the Reactor” tour where cyclists can bike around the iconic B Reactor. The $60 registration fee includes the bike ride, a catered lunch and a tour of B Reactor. Proceeds will go to a nonprofit supporting the Hanford unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (NHP).
In other exciting news, Becky Burghart has been named the site manager for the Hanford unit of the Manhattan Project NHP. She previously served as chief of interpretation at White Sands National Monument in Alamogordo, N.M, which is home to the Manhattan Project’s Trinity Site. In the Los Alamos Daily Post, Burghart said the new position provides her “with a unique opportunity to draw on my interpretive background and community collaboration experience in the early development of one of the newest units of the National Park Service.”
The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque will premiere its replica of the Trinity Site tower on October 6 at 5:30 PM. The event will include a showing of the History Channel production “Modern Marvels: The Manhattan Project.” The tower replica, which includes a “Gadget,” was supported by philanthropists Clay and Dorothy Perkins. In the Museum’s press release on the tower, Museum Director Jim Walther stated, “We are proud to exhibit the largest collection of artifacts relating to the Trinity Test…We are open daily to bring this story to life for visitors of all ages and backgrounds.”
On October 11 at 5 PM, Nancy Bartlit will give a talk on the “Silent Voices of World War II: The Navajo Code Talkers’ Indispensable Secret Role in the Pacific Theatre” at The Aztec Senior Center, 101 S. Park Ave. in Aztec, NM. Over 400 code talkers were deployed during the war, serving in every Marine unit in the Pacific. The Japanese never broke the Navajo code. Bartlit, a former president of the Los Alamos Historical Society, explained her veneration for the Navajo code talkers: “What they did was absolutely astonishing…We so relied on them.”
On October 12, author and journalist Jennet Conant will speak at 7 PM in Fuller Lodge on her new book, Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist. This biography of her grandfather, Manhattan Project leader and Harvard president,  was positively reviewed by historian Alex Wellerstein in Nature. Conant’s other works have included 109 East Palace and Tuxedo Park. AHF’s Cindy Kelly and Nate Weisenberg enjoyed meeting Conant at Politics & Prose in Washington, DC.
Oak Ridge’s 75th anniversary events are underway. In September, over 100 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new pavilion for Oak Ridge’s International Friendship Bell in Alvin K. Bissell Park. For more, please see the Knoxville News Sentinel article about the ceremony. Upcoming Oak Ridge events include a fire prevention celebration on October 7 and a photograph collection viewing at the Oak Ridge Public Library on October 25.

In other Oak Ridge news, the American Museum of Science and Energy’s move to a new building has been delayed by five months. The Museum will be moving from its current building of about 54,000 square feet to an 18,000 square feet building once occupied by Sears and Downtown Hardware. Now the move is expected to happen in May 2018. The current AMSE building will eventually be demolished and the site developed for retail.
Gallery:

Manhattan Project veteran Bill Wilcox with the International Friendship Bell in its old pavilion in 2008

Jennet Conant speaking at Politics and Prose

The B Reactor at Hanford