Purpose: NAAV (National Association of Atomic Veterans) is developing for a list of museums and historic sites related to the history of the atomic bomb.
ARIZONA
Titan Missile Museum (Green Valley, AZ) America’s only nuclear missile silo open to the public. Offers guided underground silo tours and Col War-era exhibits.
ARKANSAS
Wings of Honor Museum (Walnut Ridge, AR) Among its exhibits is content on cleanup operations at Enewetak Atoll and atomic testing effects.
NEVADA
Atomic Museum Vegas, (Las Vegas, NV)
The National Atomic Testing Museum (Atomic Museum), is a national science, history, and educational institution that tells the story of America’s nuclear weapons testing program at the Nevada Test Site. Showcases some of the rarest of artifacts relating to the nation’s atomic testing program. Nowhere else can you see a large nuclear reactor that was used in the development of the nuclear rocket and the first air-to-air missile, Genie. Personal atomic weapons that were developed to use in place of conventional weapons, such as the Backpack Nuke and the Crockett XM-388 projectile, are placed throughout the 8,000 square feet of museum exhibits.
NEW MEXICO
Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Bradbury Science Museum (Los Alamos, NM) Located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, it features Manhattan Project artifacts including full-size “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” bomb models.
Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Los Alamos History Museum (Los Alamos, NM)
A journey from the Pajarito Plateau’s Ancestral Pueblo, through homestead, the Ranch School Era, and the Manhattan Project. Includes the Hans Bethe House, the Oppenheimer House, and a guest cottage where Gen. Leslie Groves stayed.
National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (Albuquerque NM) A Smithsonian affiliate which teaches the story of the Atomic Age, from early research of nuclear development through today’s peaceful uses of nuclear technology. Visitors can explore how nuclear science continues to influence our world. Through permanent and changing exhibits and displays, the museum strives to present the diverse applications of nuclear science in the past, present, and future, along with the stories of the field’s pioneers. The “Atomic Histories” exhibit explores the Manhattan Project’s origins through national laboratories, uranium mining, and nuclear waste sites in New Mexico.
OHIO
Mound Science and Energy Museum Association (Miamisburg, OH)
The Mound Science and Energy Museum Association (MSEMA) is a nonprofit organization that was established to collect, preserve and make publicly accessible the heritage of the Mound Laboratory, its workers and its site.
TENNESSEE
American Museum of Science and Energy (Oak Ridge, TN) Focuses on Oak Ridge’s role in the Manhattan Project. Exhibits include a nuclear weapons display, reactor tours, and exhibits on Y-12 Plant and K-25 site.
VIRGINIA
The Cold War Museum (Warrenton, VA) Houses extensive Civil Defense collections and Cold War nuclear-era displays, relevant to the atomic veteran context.
WASHINGTON
Manhattan Project National Historical Park (Hanford, WA) Hanford Engineer Works produced plutonium at a roughly 600 square mile (1554 sq. km) site along the Columbia River in Washington state. Workers at the Hanford Site constructed and operated the world’s first nuclear production reactors that produced the plutonium used in the Trinity Test and in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.