NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND HISTORY IN ALBUQUERQUE

Currently in Albuquerque NM (Low 38 Showers and Wind High 62) 

We toured the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History while in Albuquerque.

Both of us worked in the Nuclear Weapons Complex. We met while walking into work on a Sunday and the rest is history. We worked at the Kansas City Plant that originally was run by Bendix then Allied then Allied Signal then AlliedSignal. AlliedSignal bought Honeywell in 1999 and adopted the Honeywell name for all its holdings. It's been Honeywell ever since.

The Kansas City Plant manufactures all the nonnuclear mechanical and electrical components for the Nuclear Weapons Complex. It was neat to see the end products of what we worked on. Here is the W80.

The B83

The B61 holds special significance as both of us worked on this program, Jo as a Program Planner coordinating the manufacturing schedule and Bob as a Product/Process Engineer in printed wiring board fabrication.

The museum covers the science of nuclear energy from its theory proposed by Ernest Rutherford and Wilhelm Roentgen to the Manhattan Project which developed the first atomic bombs. They had a replica of the "Gadget" which was detonated at the Trinity Site.

Here are replicas of "Fat Man" and "Little Boy".

We always like to find and report on the neat stories. Here is one of the Packard limos that ferried the scientists up the hill to Los Alamos.

The Packards were cut in half and a 6 foot stretch was added. This car was found in a Gallup New Mexico salvage yard in 2005 and restored.

We always make jokes about the "duck and cover" exercises we did growing up, like the school desks would protect us during a nuclear explosion. It was neat to see literature on this.

The last story maybe not so neat is that when they were building the facilities near Oak Ridge Tennessee some people had to be relocated. About 3000 people got a knock on the door and were told they had to leave in 2 weeks or less. Can't imagine that happening now.

In addition to the Pioneers of the Atom, Manhattan Project and Cold War exhibits that we have discussed here the museum also has exhibits on Radiation 101, Nuclear Medicine, Atomic Culture showing all the movies related to the nuclear age, plus other exhibits.

It is a great museum and a good walk down memory lane for us.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo