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- inactive, on 07/14/2009, -5/+49Amazing that most of the countries in the world would give a testicle or both for that technology and to us (in the US) it is obsolete.
- DangerCollie, on 07/15/2009, -0/+43You don't really get the scale from the pictures. When you're there, it's amazing. The was gas diffusion building at Oak Ridge, the first concrete pour was over 200,000 cubic yards. The Army had a build a temporary town, nicknamed Happy Valley, to house all the workers. K-25 was the size of 35 football fields. 4 stories tall, 1/2 mile long by 1,000 feet wide, 2 million sq ft, housed 758 miles of copper tubing. 12,000 people were needed just to hunt for leaks.
Then there were the 1,152 Calutrons (K-12 building?), magnets so powerful your pocket knife could pin you to a wall and they'd have to cut your pants off around the knife. That facility wasn't producing fast enough, so they started K-25.
These projects are massive on a scale you can't imagine. And they were all built in near total secrecy, nobody knew what anyone else did out there, and in a record time it's unlikely we could match today. For a long time Oak Ridge didn't officially exist.
At Hanford it's even more bizarre. The towns of Hanford and White Bluff, moved by the Army. You can see streets with no homes, still today, like a city with a bank vault right in the middle of nowhere. Spooky. Walking through the old A & B reactors you can feel the weight of history. Now I have to go dig up and scan all my pictures. I got surprising access to take pictures. Even though we got stopped by the Hanford Patrol three times, I got the shots. - andyrunner, on 07/14/2009, -1/+36did anyone else think of Homer Simpson when they saw this?
http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/57492/project ... - takeo1775, on 07/14/2009, -0/+35like going through a Nuka-Cola factory in Fallout 3
- ar1c3, on 07/14/2009, -0/+20I love the simplicity of it all!
- Blaike, on 07/14/2009, -0/+18I would like to know how some of this equipment works.
- Hu99, on 07/14/2009, -0/+17I can't believe they posted it on the same page!!
- ayeroxor, on 07/15/2009, -1/+18Nuclear power plants contribute 1 out of every 5 megawatts consumed in this country while releasing nothing into the atmosphere but steam that will NOT cause lung cancer for thousands unlike the fossil fuel plants that account for the majority of the remainder.
Guess where we figured out how to do that?
People complain because its byproducts are buried in a mountain? Yeah, the air is clean but damn, poor mountain. - Joest23, on 07/15/2009, -0/+15I find it incredible that we were able to manufacture a nuclear bomb with such primitive technology (By today's standards, at least). I mean, think about it. The silicon microchip wasn't invented for another 25 years. Computers by what we know them today don't exist.
- ayeroxor, on 07/15/2009, -0/+14And now you're on the list.
- danj484, on 07/15/2009, -0/+13With the radiation associated with it, some would certainly lose at least a testicle.
- surindravg, on 07/14/2009, -0/+12http://i26.tinypic.com/2q1yqeb.jpg
yup - brownsound00, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1250,000 people used to work here...
- fuzzybeard, on 07/15/2009, -0/+11So would a few countries.
- haikuFU, on 07/15/2009, -1/+12We know it's you Kim Jung Il.
- SoCalChris, on 07/14/2009, -2/+13Yeah, it was awful, but the alternatives would have likely been more awful. You could also argue that nuclear technology has helped to keep the peace since then, it's kept us, Russia and China from attacking each other.
I'm not cheering for the fact that we used these on civilians, just pointing out that we didn't have any better choices. - superkendall, on 07/14/2009, -1/+11It also let us have nuclear power plants, idiot.
- Teh_Shiz, on 07/15/2009, -0/+9My dad works out at Hanford. Used to go there every once in a while on bring your kids to work day. Good stuff really.
- PhillyOC, on 07/14/2009, -0/+9Amazing to see what they were able to accomplish in 1955. I would really love to see a modern reactor control console in comparison the first ones. The one in the 12th photo down did not have a single monitor and only analog gauges, nothing digital at all. That is some kickass classic technology right there.
- wacked, on 07/15/2009, -0/+8Please do scan those images. That would also be really cool to see.
- doktordeathray, on 07/15/2009, -0/+7Yes please post those pictures I would love to see them. I am a atomic junkie for stuff like this!
- DeadSkinMask, on 07/15/2009, -0/+7Sector 7G
- Lane, on 07/14/2009, -1/+8So what time does the tour start?
- ankhen, on 07/15/2009, -0/+6Like coal, which is responsible for more than half our co2 emissions and greenhouse gasses? Nuclear is actually much safer, cleaner, and efficient than you're making it out to be. It does produce nuclear waste, but the amount is minimal.
We should not rely solely on nuclear, but rather look at it as a stepping stone to safer, cleaner, and more efficient energy sources. In the mean time we should utilize it and cut down on coal usage. - booyahbitch, on 07/15/2009, -0/+6I think most of it was accomplished way before 1955.
- suntzusputnik, on 07/15/2009, -1/+7I can't believe it's not butter!
- rft3rd, on 07/15/2009, -1/+6Insert, Withdraw
Insert, Withdraw
Insert, Withdraw
Ahh what a job. - fuzzybeard, on 07/15/2009, -0/+5Yup; especially the stuff at Hanford. What worries me more is the physical decay of the buildings, especially the gaseous diffusion building in picture #6. Brickwork, if not properly maintained in a corrosive environment (think acid rain), will after sometime develop what I call "chalking."
This phenomena causes the brick to turn from something as hard as a...well, *brick*, back into its raw material; usually shale that is left out in the elements to decay for about 2 years before processing and being kiln-fired. - Niubai, on 07/14/2009, -6/+11There are more than a dozen of countries that can enrich uranium, but just three or four use the technology to build bombs and ***** up the world. And, sincerely, I don't see any merit on that.
- fritzmusic, on 07/15/2009, -0/+5Check out the OPAL Control Room in Google. About the closest thing and most photographed you'll find on the web for current photos. Looks like the control rooms have shrunk considerably.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www. ... - blorguehad, on 07/15/2009, -0/+5let's plan a heist.
- Cockslap, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4So ronrey.
- monodelasno, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4That was part of the lesser known Soccer Mom project
- wacked, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4Notice the flag flying at half mast in the pic of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. I wonder why that is. I can imagine. Those buildings mean so much in a way, but they look lost to barely visible decay. Pretty incredible composition.
- Chairboy, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4True. Very little of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs were constructed in 1955.
- PhillyOC, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4Don't feed the troll.
- inactive, on 07/14/2009, -1/+5check out his other photos if you like this stuff.
http://www.behance.net/MartinMiller/Frame - inactive, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4@philly
yup i walked into that one - xsanctom, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4Mirror?
- lydiasky, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4Very eerie. Great photographs.
- d-ude, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4...and now it's a ghost town.
- Vodd9, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4Cool story, bro.
- sexybobo, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3The captions were saying when the building was built not when the photo was taken.
- shyboy, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Is this a level out of Halflife2?
- haikuFU, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3What's really insane is that all of this was done without computers. We're talkin' nerds with paper and sliderules.
Looking at those photos is just simply amazing when you keep that in mind. - superkendall, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Some of them were good but he needs to learn to edit. In two cases at least the ame picture was pretty much repeated twice.
I think more could have been done with that subject for sure... - monodelasno, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3It's self-securing. As soon as you break in, your dick falls off
- PhillyOC, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3I meant 1945. I am such a retard.
- Jsoul87, on 07/15/2009, -1/+4That's gotta be the least-secure plutonium vault I've ever seen.
Ok...to be fair this is also the first one I've ever seen, but damn, I hope they're more imposing than this. - tablunket, on 07/14/2009, -0/+3read my mind.
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