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Online Resources about Nuclear Weapons

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Trinity Atomic Site | Manhattan Project History | Nuclear Weapons Technology |
The Nuclear Age | U.S. Government Sources | Anti-Nuclear Activism |
General Nuclear-related Indexes


Trinity Atomic Site

Bureau of Atomic Tourism
This site lists atomic tourist attractions in the U.S. with a one-page description of each, including the National Atomic Museum and Trinity Site.

Another 50th Anniversary visit to Trinity Site (at CLUI )
I am not exactly sure what the "Center for Land User Interpretation" is all about, but they have written a one-page description of their visit to Trinity Site. They also sell a great visitor's guide to the Nevada Test Site.

Another Visit to Trinity Atomic Site
This page describes a visit to Trinity Site in words and photos. Includes links to other Trinity Sites and a short bibliography.

Seattle Times History of Trinity
The Seattle Times wrote an article about the history of the Trinity Test that includes a visit to Trinity Site.

Tourist Information about Trinity Site
Viva! New Mexico has a number of pages describing tourist attractions in New Mexico, including Trinity Site.


Manhattan Project History

Los Alamos History Online
The Los Alamos Research Library sponsors this page of historical documents about Los Alamos. It includes "Los Alamos 50 years ago," series of articles about the early history of Los Alamos with great photos.

Leo Szilard Home Page
Leo Szilard was a brilliant and eccentric physicist who first conceived of a nuclear chain reaction, worked for the Manhattan Project, and later worked for international control of nuclear weapons. This WWW site has extensive information about Szilard and early atomic history. Especially note the pages on Radiation Monitoring at Trinity and Eyewitness Reports on the Trinity Test.


Nuclear Weapons Technology

Nuclear Weapons FAQ
This document in progress gives a detailed technical discussion of how nuclear weapons work. You can find it at the High Energy Weapons Archive, sister site to this one.

The Swords of Armageddon CDROM
Chuck Hansen has spent over 25 years pushing the barriers of secrecy around nuclear weapons. He has updated and extended his 1988 book U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History in this CDROM. He tells the inside workings of nuclear weapons technology and presents an elaborate history of nuclear weapons tests, especially how those tests improved weapons design.


The Nuclear Age

Otowi Station Bookstore (Los Alamos)
This bookstore is located next to the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos. They offer numerous books and videos about atomic history in their online catalog.

Trinity and Beyond Video
This is the most amazing documentary of nuclear weapons testing since The Atomic Cafe. More serious in tone, it covers the entire span of above-ground tests. The Taos Film festival review at the FilmZone site includes two online video clips from the movie. The Toronto International Film Festival site has two other video clips as well.

Jayne Loader's Public Shelter CDROM
Jayne Loader was co-creator of the hit movie, The Atomic Cafe. Her CDROM is a wacky and in-depth look at the nuclear age and its echoes in society. Look beyond the video clips, which are sometimes humorous and sometimes chilling. An extensive archive of searchable text documents makes this a useful reference work in addition to all the fun.

The Atomic Age CDROM
I have not had a chance to review a copy of this CDROM. Excerpts are available at its WWW site.


U.S. Government Information Sources

National Archives and Records Administration
The U.S. National Archives contains a wealth of information about the history of the Manhattan Project. You can search the audio-visual collection or go directly to the WWW page of selected WWII photos (the photos themselves are on-line).

Department of Energy OpenNet Database
This database is an incredible resource. It can be searched for documents from the beginnings of the Manhattan Project all the way up to present activities. Many of the documents are housed at the DOE/NV Coordination and Information Center. Copies can be ordered (via e-mail!) for 25 cents per page.

Office of Human Radiation Experiments
The Department of Energy has gone to great efforts to open up this hidden chapter of atomic history. In addition to the over-view report, you can search through an extensive database of documents. The bad news is that the search procedure is very awkward. The good news is that the documents themselves are on-line, though only in GIF or TIF image format. (These documents are also indexed through the Dept. of Energy OpenNet Database, see above).

Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)
The OTA was closed in 1995 in a short-sighted attempt a budget-cutting. OTA issued numerous reports on the nuclear proliferation, the weapons complex, and clean-up of nuclear sites. Fortunately the OTA documents (all public domain) are available on-line or on an inexpensive set of CDROMs. Here are links to some reports in the OTA archive related to nuclear weapons:

Complex Cleanup: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production (February 1991)
The Containment