A couple days ago we visited Los Alamos, which is located 45 minutes NW of Santa Fe, our current hangout. LA was the research/design/build center for the Manhattan Project - the first atomic bomb, aka 'the gadget' - in the early 1940s. Gadget ingredients were cooked up at the Hanford site near Richland, WA and in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The first bomb was successfully tested at the 'Trinity Site' near Las Cruces, NM in 1945.
Robert Oppenheimer, left, a brilliant theoretical physicist, was the leader of the Manhattan Project. General Groves was his military counterpart. Here, they are pictured at the Trinity Site where the first bomb was tested.
The Project was super hush and super rush because it was feared the Nazis were ahead of us in building the bomb. The brainiacs at LA, super bright people of varied disciplines, knew the objective but the majority of the 6000 people on site did not. Security was tight and mail was censored but that didn't stop the spies: there were at least 3, perhaps more - spying for Russia though, not Germany.
The main lab complex. There are also many satellite locations several miles away. I assume they're spread out so one enemy missile or bomb (or one major accident) doesn't destroy everything.
Today, LA is an upscale town of 18K souls and the Los Alamos National Laboratory that was founded in 1943 is still active, working on projects related to energy, defense, national security, science and environmental management. The lab complex is huge; nearly 10K people work there. The town is said to have the highest average education level of any town in the entire world.
That main lab complex is huge! Is the home of the current research projects the same facilities where the Manhattan Project was housed? How far is the town (residences) from the research?
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