The Newest US National Park is also a Nuclear Waste Site (Oak Ridge TN) | MOTM VLOG #49
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2016
- Read the Whole blog about this here -- www.mortonsonthemove.com/trav...
We got to be some of the first visitors to the Manhattan project national park in oak ridge TN!
Oak Ridge runs public bus tours throughout the complex . You can book them ahead of time, or they leave 10 spots open on each tour for walk-ups. We got into the $5, 3-hour bus tour as a walk-up to see the facility. Get there when they open at 9:00AM, we were #5 and #6 in line!
The tours run from the American Museum of Science and Energy which tells the story of the secret city and atomic bombs. It was fascinating to learn about this huge covert operation that no one knew about, but without it we wouldn’t have ended World War II when we did. It may have dragged on for years, and it probably would have killed many more people. There may have been a land invasion on US Shores. Who knows what would have happened?
Our tour took us to the Y12 Plant which is now known as the "National Security Complex." The now maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, among other duties. We did not get to go far into the facility besides their small museum area.
Then we went to see the Graphite Reactor where the first successful production of plutonium 239 was made through spontaneous nuclear chain reactions, among other breakthroughs in nuclear science that happened throughout and after WWII.
Our tour also took us by one of the churches of the previous communities that were in the Oak Ridge area. Several towns and about 1,000 families were displaced for the building of the Oak Ridge site. The sacrifice they made for the war effort was incredible: the families were given less than 3 weeks notice to move out of their homes before construction started.
One question that I kept asking but couldn’t get a good answer for was how Oak Ridge was handling their nuclear waste from decommissioned bombs and the radioactive isotopes leftover from the uranium enrichment process. The tour guide told me that they were digging up the radioactive areas and burying them. 5 miles away. So they can take people to the old site to see the ruins.
My grandfather worked at y 12 and k25. He ran a hazardous materials company after retiring. I remember he "retired" about the time the Berlin wall came down.
Oh... there is so much more to the story of Oak Ridge! Beyond all of the cool science and technology stuff, it has the top rated Crewing water in the U.S.
As a resident of this city, I'm glad someone finnaly likes it.
It would be funny to have a snippet of an "Oak Ridge Boys" song.
We just visited this a few weeks ago. We didn't get to see everything and it was still as educational as a semester class on science in history. Truly fascinating and worth anyone's time. So much cool stuff!
The enrichment process took place at the K-25 site. Not the Y-12 site as many would believe. Another nice piece of info is that the coils that made up the machine that enriched the uranium ore was made of solid silver. To get that much silver the Operation had to acquire tonnes and tonnes of silver bullion from the Federal Reserve. I live in the area and work here as a radioactive waste process technician.
Tom you should be a teacher or a tour guide!!!! Nice hair Cait!! Cool stop and very interesting. Great vid as usual Mortons on the move............
Ha Thanks Don! I think both those Job options are on the bucket list for the future!
My Uncle works there. I have always wanted to go.
We had a really great time, You could really spend more than a day there because there is so much to see!
Mortons on the Move Well, all we really have are a few museums and a bowling alley
But yeah, it's a fin little city
Flower Covered Failure Is that all you've gotten from living in Oak Ridge? I think your comment says more about you than OR. I've been here for 57 years and still love it.
No one told you about John Hendricks "The Prophet of Oak Ridge"? Pretty interesting.
Ha They did actually! Should have told that story in the video! :)
Interesting but erie
We visited Oak Ridge on June 3rd. We are still talking about what a wonderful experience it was. www.rvsikeseeing.com
Awesome, Looks like you guys have been having a great time. Did you do the bus tour too? If our paths cross lets meet up!
Mortons on the Move
Yes, we also did the bus tour. Fascinating stuff! We are going to the Xscapers Convergence at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and plan on visiting Los Alamos for some more Manhattan Project immersion. Where are you guys at now? We are in Northern Colorado visiting friends until Sept 9th, then heading to NM. Then on the FL for the winter.
Aewsome! We hope to hit both los Alamos and Hanford WA! We are currently in the Tetons. Were working our way west to go down the coast for winter in Socal , NM and AZ. We did FL last winter and had an amazing time! Sounds like our paths wont cross for a while, but ya never know!
The stuff you say in this video is not accurate, educate yourself before trying to educate others!
We shared what our tour guide told us, please inform us what is wrong