Tripping Over Engineering: Going Nuclear: Exploring the Birth of the Atomic Age

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About Tripping Over Engineering: Going Nuclear: Exploring

How would you like to actually see the dark secrets of the US nuclear weapons program. Stand on the site of the first nuclear reactor (CP-1). Stand in the control room of the first continuous operating reactor (X-10). Stand at the loading face of the first production reactor (Hanford B) that produced plutonium for the first atomic detonation and many of the 60,000 US nuclear weapons produced. Walk through USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, which changed the entire concept of warfare at sea.The story of US nuclear weapons often focuses on the physicists delving into new aspects of their science. But how much engineering effort and expense was spent on producing the isotopes, building the weapons and putting them on target. Nuclear medicine, the space program, the rapid development of jet aircraft, the human genome project are all progeny of the nuclear age. All had some relationship with the desire to produce and deliver nuclear weapons. Besides technical progress, the nuclear age also redefined the world socially and culturally. This engineering deserves more than a footnote in history. It deserves to be seen. Until you can go, get on the bus with me, I saved you a seat.