Oak Ridge, Tennessee - The Secret Atomic City

For my wife's birthday, I purchased her "The Girls of Atomic City" The Untold Story of The Women Who Helped Win World War II" by Denise Kiernan. The book explores the often untold history of Women during the Second World War. Many people in seminar's across University Campuses have studied Women's contributions to the War, building bombs, aircraft, tanks, trucks and many other things that cannot be listed as it would take more than the space available on this free blog!  

Available from Amazon.com

What I was surprised to learn, was that the United States built an entirely secrete city during the war to help build the Atomic Bomb. Everyone has heard about Los Alamos labratory, and many believe the bomb was built, developed, and tested at this location. I was even under this impression. "The Girls of Atomic City" tells the story of the thousands of women, who were moved to the newly built secrete military city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee to help build the Atomic Bomb, all while they did not fully know what they were developing. Each facility was responsible for a different piece of the weapon, and no one ever saw a finished product leave the facility, so no one knew what was being built. 

The city itself was established in 1942 as a production site for the Manhattan Project - conducted by the United States, United Kingdom, and Canadian governments contributions. The area was selected because its relatively low population made the acquisition of the land relatively affordable, as almost all of the local residence were forced to evacuate their homes and move elsewhere. Oak Ridge became a military town, checkpoints to enter and exit the city, surrounded by fencing. The low population also helped keep the town a secrete. The population in 1942 was a mere 3,000 -  but this would boom to more than 75,000 by 1945 and the end of the War. The largest facility built in Oak Ridge, the K-25 Uranium separation facility covered more than 44 acres. For a number of years, this was the largest building in the world. Aside from K-25, S-50 and Y-12 plants were built to separate the fissile isotope uranium-235 from its natural state. The United States also built the X-10 plant which is currently the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was originally established as a pilot project for the production of plutonium for a Graphite Reactor. 

With the quick influx of people to this secrete town, prefabricated housing, apartments and dorms were established with a basic community layout, and dirt roads, as there was no time to pave the roadways, as the city was growing faster than it could accommodate. 

Not only was the city a secret, what people were working on was a secret. No one working in the various plants (despite the Army and Government officials overseeing the community) knew what they were working on. People were to swear that they would not talk about what their were doing to their neighbours and colleagues living with them in Oak Ridge. 

The vast majority of the population of Oak Ridge were women. They were completing much of the scientific exploration and projects that led to the development and success of the Trinity Test in 1945, and the weapons used against Japan in August of 1945.  

When news of the first atomic bombing of Hiroshima Japan on August 6th 1945 made its way back to the United States, and President Harry S. Truman thanked all those who worked diligently at the Oak Ridge facility, was it revealed to the residents of Oak Ridge what they had been working on developing. 

Even today Oak Ridge is still a national nuclear research and weapons facility. Here is what happened to the facilities operated at Oak Ridge: 

K-25 where uranium was enriched until 1986 is in the process of being decommissioned and decontaminated. 

Y-12 which was used for the separation of Uranium is sill in use for nuclear weapons processing and materials storage.

X-10 where the test Graphite Reactor is located, is now the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

S-50 liquid thermal diffusion plant was demolished at the end of the war.  

As of the 2010 census, the population was at 29,230. 

Now we can all be aware of the contributions of Oak Ridge Tennessee for ending the Second World War, that Los Alamos was not alone in its efforts during the Manhattan Project.  

Remembering History - Oak Ridge - The Secret Atomic City 

Top 3 Nuclear Power Accidents

In light of the recent debate on nuclear power generation and it's safety, due to the Fukushima Nuclear melt down last year after the Japanese tsunami, I am taking a look back at the top 3 nuclear power accidents  according to INES level ratings.


This will discuss all accidents level 6 or above according to INES. 
** Three Mile Island, has been left off the list as it is rated at a level 5 INES.

Level 6: Serious Accidents

There has only been one such event according to the INES scale.

The Kyshtym Memorial

It took place at Mayak, former Soviet Union (Mod. Russia) on September 29, 1957. Known as the Kyshtym Disaster, a faulty cooling system at the militarise nuclear waste reprocessing facility caused a steam explosion that released more than 80 tons of highly radioactive materials into the surrounding environment. The impact on the local population is not fully known.

A week after the leak, an operation to evacuate more than  10,000 people from the surrounding area took place, without giving the locals any explanation as to why. Despite reports by neighbouring states in April 1958, the Soviet Union did not fully disclose the disaster to the world until 1976. The city of Ozuorsk itself has been claimed safe for humans, but the EURT area around the reprocessing facility is still heavily contaminated.


Level 7:  Major Accidents 

There have been twi such events to date according to the INES

On April 26, 1986 a power surge during testing caused one of the reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine into a critically stage. This lead to a powerful steam explosion and fire that damaged a significant fraction of the reactor 4 core, and the majority of the core materials were spewed into the environment. This resulted in an immediate death toll of 56, as well as an estimated 4,000 radiation induced cancer deaths since. (Official WHO estimate).


As a result of the explosion, the City of Chernobyl, with a population at the time of 15,000 was largely abandoned, and the much larger city of Pripyat, population 50,000, was completely abandoned and a permanent 30 kilometre Exclusion Zone around the reactor was established.

Despite the high levels of radioactivity, the Ukrainian government continued to operate the remaining reactors at the Chernobyl site until December 2000, when the last reactor, reactor 3, was personally shutdown by the Ukrainian President.

1-Day or 2-Day Tours of the abandoned city of Pripyat are offered, leaving from Kiev, offering  a 'safe' distance view of the reactor.

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On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami crashed into the Pacific coast of Japan. Not only did the tsunami lead to nearly 25,000 casualties (15,000+ deaths, 3,000+ missing, and 6,000+ injuries), it caused a series of equipment failures which in turn caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.



It was the largest, and worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Reactor 1 suffered a hydrogen explosion before it entered into a meltdown

Reactor 2 suffered a steam explosion, and was stabilised before it entered in to a meltdown

Reactor 3 suffered a steam explosion, and began to vent radioactive steam, but did not reach the critical point.

Reactor 4 was shutdown on March 11, and the fuel rods transfered to the spent fuel pool. On March 15, an explosion damaged the roof of Reactor 4, and the water in the pool began boiling, causing the release of more radioactive steam. . By the end of April, Japanese authorities were able confirm the fuel rods we not damaged.

Reactors 5 and 6 are still in stable condition and under constant monitoring.

The radioactive materials dispersed by Fukushima was 40% the total of Chernobyl, and the distance it was dispersed was 1/8 of that of the Chernobyl radioactive plume.


Remembering History - Top 3 Nuclear Power Accidents.