rad radiation

or: how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

52 Places

Trinity Atomic Bomb Site

Twice a year, visitors can tour the desolate site that birthed the Atomic Age.

Las Vegas, Nevada

Atomic Liquors

Back in 1952, you could get a mushroom cloud chaser with your atomic cocktail.

Musée Curie

The history of radiation is on safe display at the foot of a radiation science laboratory.

Indygenous

Added by Indygenous

Green Valley, Arizona

Titan Missile Museum

America's only nuclear missile silo open to the public.

Portland, Oregon

Reed College Research Reactor

World's only nuclear reactor operated by liberal arts undergraduates.

Marshall Islands

Bikini Atoll

The birthplace of both the Atomic Age and Godzilla, and the namesake of the bathing suit.

Shannon Ohaire

Added by Shannon Ohaire

Santa Fe, New Mexico

109 East Palace

This innocuous New Mexico storefront was once the secret jump-off spot for Manhattan Project scientists.

Added by michaelksugar

Los Alamos, New Mexico

Bradbury Science Museum

This museum started as a collection of Manhattan Projects and continues to add exhibits as they are declassified.

Added by kevinv

Las Vegas, Nevada

Atomic Museum

Stepping away from the glitz of mobsters and casinos to learn about the other history of Vegas.

Alex

Albuquerque, New Mexico

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

The official atomic museum of the United States explores the explosive and productive history of a much maligned energy source.

Eirik Gumeny

Added by Eirik Gumeny

BREN Tower

Large tower used for simulating radiation of Hiroshima bomb and the tallest object ever relocated.

Hiroshima, Japan

Hiroshima's Hypocenter

A plaque marks the site directly below the mid-air detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

Ysabet

Added by Ysabet

Panhandle, Texas

Pantex Plant

The only nuclear weapon assembly and disassembly plant in the U.S.

Clinton

Added by Clinton

Warren, New Hampshire

Redstone Missile

Maybe the only missile installed in a public park, this Cold War leftover was one of the first to carry a nuclear warhead.

Added by h0n0rb

Silver City, Georgia

Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory

The remains of one of America's first radiation testing grounds still rest ominously in a Georgia forest.

Added by chelseaweberdap

Highlands, New Jersey

Sandy Hook Nike Launch Site

Rusting away on the edge of New Jersey are the remains of a Cold War missile launch site.

Luke J Spencer

Added by Luke J Spencer

Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands

Atomic Bomb Loading Pits

The pits used to load the nuclear bombs onto the aircraft that dropped them over Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

auradlsi

Added by auradlsi

Nye County, Nevada

Sedan Crater

The largest man-made crater in the U.S. marks the spot where we once tested mining with nukes.

Added by jchris7588

Semey, Kazakhstan

Semipalatinsk Polygon

One of the most horrible legacies of the Cold War is a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear bombs on civilians.

Added by Tawsam

Pripyat, Ukraine

Abandoned City of Pripyat

The ghost town left by the worst nuclear disaster of all time is being taken over by nature and urban explorers.

Added by Delireus

Nye County, Nevada

Atomic Survival Town

A picture-perfect town, perfect for blowing up.

Nye County, Nevada

Atomic Bank Vault

The contents of this safe survived a 37-kiloton nuclear bomb.

Elliot Carter

Added by Elliot Carter

Bunker-42

Dr. Strangelove-esque tours reveal the inside a bunker once reserved for Stalin himself.

Added by aelandry

Nuclear Shelter 10-Z

A former top secret nuclear fallout shelter now operates like a hotel stuck in the Cold War.

ahvenas

Added by ahvenas

Yucca Mountain Repository

Potential high level nuclear waste storage site for the next 10,000 years and beyond.

Added by LongNow

Lappajärvi, Finland

Lake Lappajärvi

Nuclear waste experts study this prehistoric crater lake to envision landscapes one million years in the future.

Added by Vincent Ialenti

Washington, D.C.

Russian Ambassador's Residence

Was there a small "backpack nuke" hidden in the attic? JFK apparently thought so.

Elliot Carter

Added by Elliot Carter

Arlington, Virginia

Pentagon Hot Dog Stand

Rumor has it the hot dog stand was targeted by two Russian nuclear missiles.

Elliot Carter

Added by Elliot Carter

Oklo Reactor

The world's first and only natural nuclear reactor.

Nagasaki, Japan

Atomic Bomb Medical Museum

A sobering scientific reminder of the human damage caused by the advent of the nuclear age.

Added by Juliette Marang

Sillamäe, Estonia

Sillamäe

This Soviet-era "closed town" was a top secret uranium producer often left off of maps.

ReverieChaser

Added by ReverieChaser

Myth of Tomorrow

After being lost for decades, this striking mural depicting the atomic bomb covers the wall of a busy Tokyo metro station.

KoinuSensei

Added by KoinuSensei

Eureka, North Carolina

Goldsboro Nuclear Mishap

A sign marks the plane crash that caused two nuclear bombs to fall in North Carolina.

meltingknight

Added by meltingknight

San Francisco, California

Hunter's Point Shipyard

Radioactivity still cause for concern at this urban explorer's paradise.

btracy

Added by btracy

Pripyat, Ukraine

Abandoned Avanhard Stadium of Pripyat

One of the most poignant ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the local football team's stadium has been quickly reclaimed by nature.

Luke J Spencer

Added by Luke J Spencer

Pripyat, Ukraine

Pripyat Amusement Park

This attraction was abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster.

Allison

Added by Allison

Redmond, Washington

Nike Nuclear Missile Site S-13/14

This Cold War missile launch site has been abandoned for 40 years.

Jake Uitti

Added by Jake Uitti

Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Z Machine

The most powerful laboratory radiation source in the world pulses with 1,000 times the electricity of a lightning bolt.

Tony Dunnell

Added by Tony Dunnell

Lumberton, Mississippi

Salmon/Sterling Nuclear Tests Marker

This largely forgotten piece of Cold War history stands hidden in the woods just north of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Matt Smith

Added by Matt Smith

816 Underground Nuclear Plant

This top secret Chinese military megaproject is the world’s largest human-made tunnel structure.

Added by liamfosterlff

Philip, South Dakota

Minuteman Missile Visitor Center

Dedicated to the history of the 1,000 nuclear missiles that once covered the Great Plains.

Los Alamos, New Mexico

Fuller Lodge Art Center

Once a dining hall for boarding school students, this lodge was a popular haunt for nuclear physicists working on the Manhattan Project.

mikewalker

Added by mikewalker

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Cheyenne Mountain Complex

The superstar of Cold War nuclear bunkers has been featured in countless films but is now barely operational.

EricGrundhauser

Added by EricGrundhauser

Uravan, Colorado

Uravan

Only a few signs remain of the buried Colorado mining town that supplied the uranium for the first atomic bomb.

Alec Cowan

Added by Alec Cowan

Wellesley, Massachusetts

'Ominous Ikon #6 and Yaddo Study'

Designed to represent the mushroom clouds the artists witnessed during nuclear testing.

Ciaran

Added by Ciaran

Nye County, Nevada

Icecap Ground Zero

A facility built in 1992 for an underground nuclear test remains in place today.

zliollio

Added by zliollio

Project Shoal Site

On October 26, 1963, a 12-kiloton nuclear device was detonated here in granite some 1,211 feet below the ground surface.

slgwv

Nye County, Nevada

Project Faultless Site

The site of an underground detonation of a megaton nuclear bomb in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

TravelGal

Added by TravelGal