Would you visit preserved atomic bomb sites?

location

Elvis Telecom to thread.

i would visit these sites to see who visits these sites

Stalker.

I would visit these sites. In fact, I'll raise you one: You get the INL in Idaho to talk about their sordid past of accidentally killing people, I'll bicycle all the way there. Unicycle even. (Leave Arco alone, tho, that town is the historical site of "Atoms for Peace.")

I would definitely visit, though. "Dryness" would be my main concern, any attempts to make it at least somewhat entertaining or presented in a visually interesting way would be appreciated.

Abbott: coincidentally I heard a presentation this morning by the President of the Idaho Science Center. He was especially scornful of the attempt by "lunatic fringe groups" to claim that anyone had suffered health problems because of the INL.

Also, I was going through some archives and came across an album by Oppenheimer Analysis (Andy Oppenheimer & Martin Lloyd). Anyone know anything about them? It's quite good!

I wouldn't go out of my way, but I'd certainly consider it if they were incidental to somewhere else I were going (hi dere los alamos).

Absolutely I'd go. But then, I just finished 3 years of work at the Hanford site, and lived in one of the government built A houses. The site had just started giving monthly bus tours again a few months before we moved - I would have loved to take one, but they kept filling up in like 8 minutes, and I was never quick enough. I was lucky to work with/know several old-timers, one who had worked at the Nevada Test Site and INL as well as Hanford. I also went to the Atomic Test Museum in Las Vegas - didn't get to take the tour out to the test site - it's completely fascinating on so many levels. To me, at least. ymmv.

Whoa! Awesome! (re: the album)

That's a funny/sad/typical claim from Idaho guy...my grandpa died of radiation fuckupedness due to their whole blowout (way before I was born, when my dad was 8). My dad, man, as far back as I can remember, has been trying to get acknowledgment or reparations for the whole ordeal...every five years or so the govt. will come out with some statement looking like it'll happen, my dad talks to lawyers, heartbreak ensues once more.

What was the guy's presentation about?

I don't live too far from Los Alamos, I would mos defs make a trek there.

xxpost

The presentation was about combining the resources of museums and science centers at the four sites (Los Alamos, Idaho, Hanford, Oak Ridge) to create a greater National Park Service Heritage District. It wasn't too interesting, and many of the people involved continue to uncritically champion their region's part in the bomb effort.

Here's the music I was talking about, btw. It has a sort of a new wave / Thomas Dolby feel to it:

http://oppenheimeranalysis.com/

Jaq, that's interesting: what were you doing at Hanford? And are the A houses OK to live in? The organization I'm doing this work for (the Atomic Heritage Foundation) started the bus tours you're talking about -and yeah, they've been very popular, from what I gather. Mostly with veterans and their families...

I would definitely visit these sites if I was in the general vicinity.

I would even visit those sites, and I am not from the U.S.

However, I didn't consider the radiation issue until you mentioned it. Might there be a radiation issue?

i would totally visit this stuff, except that its all in states i have no desire to visit

paul, I was the lead control systems programmer for 2 of the clean up directives, until both efforts were shelved due to Bush admin budget cuts.

The A houses are great - basic, but very well designed and solidly built. The only modification done to ours was a full basement had been dug out and finished (originally had a 1/3rd dirt floor basement) and the original natural draft oil furnace had been replaced with forced air gas. The main drawback when compared to present-day mini-mansion conveniences - a single bathroom, on the top floor. As a side-by-side duplex they were designed with the shared wall being the stairwell/bufferzone to the main living areas. About 1200 sq. ft with the partial basement, and around 1700 with a full basement, 3 bedrooms, large L shaped living/dining room, compact but very functional T-shaped kitchen.

A group was doing a radiologic survey of all the attics of the area homes as we were living. No doubt there was a measurable level of contamination - dust, pigeons, etc. One of the water towers couldn't be taken down for almost a year due to all the radioactive pigeon droppings on it. At Hanford however, the main contaminants are highly toxic chemicals and non-radioactive heavy metals (cadmium, selenium, mercury).

Radioactive pigeons...why has not Marvel Comics picked up on this?

"as we were living" = "as we were leaving"

i know it's not what you're asking, but i've always been curious to visit Chernobyl, if i could be insured of no lingering radiation poisoning. i've seen pictures of abandoned neighborhoods there and they have a ghostly melancholy beauty.

sanskrit, check out this.

I would happily visit these sites.

I would preserve my girlfriend's vergina. Oh my god, please kill me now, before I hit "submit response".

ARgh, too late.

I have taken comedy in vain.

But seriously, it may be likely that people who are concerned with a relatively brief exposure to possible radiation may already be living in areas where they regularly are subject to exposure to PCB's and other crap on a far more consistent basis.

A possible threat of radiation would not deter me from any curiosity in visiting these places. Heck, I fractured a collarbone when I was a kid, and the radiologist who did my x-ray did not even place a lead apron thingie on me. Not to mention that I've smoked plenty of cigarettes in my time, eaten lotsa processed food, lived in places with less than stellar environmental conditions...I don't think that a one-time visit to such a site will do me in.

does three mile island count? if so, i went there on a high school field trip in 1986.

That INL stuff is extremely fucked-up; I'm sorry that your family is/was involved in it, Abbot.

To answer the original question, I would prefer that any exhibits would address the insane lack of morality, or just the insanity period, involved with the creation/proliferation of such weaponry (well, I'm thinking of what I assume might be the avg. person's perspective; but if need be, at least give some goddamn lipservice to such issues from a realpolitik standpoint)...but given the current political climate and reluctance to admit even the slightest fallacy on the U.S. gov.'s part for the unforseeable future, I ain't gonna hold my breath. (except to keep the radiation outta my lungs, hurr.)

No, I wouldn't. Sadly recent history doesn't really interest me that much. I know this is silly of me, but that's the way it is. I would however be interested in Dell's preserved penis. Vaginas are just like recent history to me: a tad boring. ;-)

yowza

(sez me who just made three lame-ass-lame jokes in the space of four consecutive posts)

I got nothing. Nuthin.

Elvis Telecom to thread.

Er yeah... I've visited just almost every atomic tour/test site there is in the continental US (including the Nevada Test Site tour), so count me as a yes.

Only two major locations I haven't been to are the Trinity Site and the location of Chicago Pile-1

Checklist here: http://www.atomictourist.com/