USA Today published a list of the major milestones of the twentieth century in its last issue of 1999 (Dec. 31). A paragraph about World War II stated, "Meanwhile, America assigns the best scientific minds to build an atomic bomb, which is widely seen as the most significant political, scientific and military event of the century."

A new CD-ROM called "Atomic Archive" is both a tutorial on nuclear issues and a depository of useful photos, video clips, and documents. The multimedia package contains more than 100 video clips, including three of humanity's first nuclear explosion at the Trinity site. One of the most meaningful clips shows a close-up of a gaunt J. Robert Oppenheimer after the test as he quotes from the Bhagavad-Gita: "I am become Death." Another short clip shows Oppenheimer and others working on "the gadget" prior to the test.
The CD-ROM is divided into four main areas: history, consequences, science and library. The history section includes 59 screens, ranging from the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 to the nuclear tests by Indian and Pakistan in 1998. Four of of the screens are devoted specifically to the Trinity test.
On each screen, buttons are available to take you to subtopics, These change from screen to screen, but include biographies, catalogs of photos, reflections by participants in their own words, and a glossary of terms.
The library section contains biographies of 29 key figures, descriptions of arms control treaties, historical texts, a timeline describing major events by decades, and collections of photographs and movies.
The company producing the CD-ROM, AJ Software & Multimedia, also provides an Atomic Arsenal web site at http://www.atomicarchive.com/. The CD-ROM can also be ordered through this site.

Photo from the CD-ROM shows J. Robert Oppenheimer, Gen. Leslie Groves and others inspecting the remains of the Trinity tower after the explosion.

The Trinity Site will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2. The site is only open to visitors two days a year -- the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October.

A new book by Paul Lawrence Rose reports on the German work on the atomic bomb during World War II. The volume notes that German scientists were hindered by their miscalculation of the critical mass for a uranium 235 explosion. They thought a bomb might require a ton or more of U235. The book is titled Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project: A Study in German Culture. It was published in 1998 by the University of California Press.

The public has a rare chance on Saturday, April 3, to examine the location of the first nuclear explosion. The Stallion Gate will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for visitors who want to drive to the Trinity Site. Another way to go to the site is by joining the automobile caravan that leaves Alamogordo at 8 a.m. The Trinity site is open two days a year -- the first Saturday in October and the first Saturday in April.

The twentieth century's biggest news story was the United States' dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a group of top U.S. journalists and historians have said. The attack with nuclear weapons ended World War II and introduced humanity to the threat of nuclear cataclysm. The list was put together by the Newseum, a journalism museum located in Arlington, Va.

The atomic bomb was recently selected as one of the most important inventions of the past 2000 years. The Edge, an invitation-only salon for the exchange of ideas, recently dealt with the question of "What is the most important invention in the past 2000 years?" Marney Morris, who teaches interaction design at Stanford University, nominated the invention and detonation of the atomic bomb. Interestingly, she said if the period had extended more than 2000 years ago her choice for the most powerful invention would have been song.

The CNN series The Cold War is accompanied by an interactive web site. One section deals with Trinity Site.

Both the United States and Russia have ratified the START I treaty, which requires each country to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 6,000. The United States has also ratified START II, which would lower the number to between 3,000 and 3,500, but Russia has not ratified the second treaty. This puts the United States in the difficult spot of spending millions of dollars to maintain weapons that might soon be eliminated. For this reason, Pentagon officials are urging that the United States make unilateral reductions in the number of warheads. But this step would run counter to legislation passed by Congress. The problem could be solved if Russia would go ahead and ratify START II. Recent tough economic conditions in that country might make its Parliament more willing to reduce the cost of maintaining a huge weapon stockpile.

Andrews County may be the next target for a nuclear waste disposal site in Texas. The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission voted on Oct. 22 to deny a license for a site at Sierra Blanca, located 90 miles southeast of El Paso and 20 miles from the Mexico border. A private corporation, Waste Control Specialists, is seeking to open a site in Andrews County.

See "A Time for Celebration" and "Political Intelligence," The Texas Observer, Nov. 6, 1998.

The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission voted 3-0 Thursday to deny a license for a proposed nuclear waste disposal plant at Sierra Blanca in West Texas. The commission expressed concerns about the safety of the site, which would have been located over a geological fault line. The facility would have stored low-level radioactive waste from Texas, Maine and Vermont.

The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission will vote Thursday (Oct. 22) on whether a license should be granted for a nuclear waste disposal site in West Texas. The site would be near Sierra Blanca, which is 90 miles southeast of El Paso. The facility would be only 20 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. A group of Mexican lawmakers are in Austin this week for a five-day fast protesting the proposed site. The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority was created by the Texas Legislature in 1981 to build and maintain the facility.

An expert on the use of seismology to detect nuclear explosions has concluded that both India and Pakistan exaggerated the size of the nuclear bombs they exploded last May. Both countries claimed some of their blasts were in the 40-45 kiloton range. But Professor Terry C. Wallace of the University of Arizona estimates that the largest Indian explosion was 10-15 kilotons and the largest Pakistani explosion was 9-12 kilotons. The report appeared in Seismological Research Letters.

The Nashville Tennessean has conducted a year-long investigation of unexplained illnesses in people working at and living near nuclear facilities. The illnesses include respiratory, neurological and immune system problems. Among the facilities are the Rocky Flats Plant in Denver; the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The U.S. Department of Energy is reviewing the complaints. Details can be found in the Tennessean's special report.

The Trinity Site will be open to the public Saturday, Oct. 3. Stallion Gate will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Alamogordo caravan will leave the fairgrounds at 8 a.m. The site is open two days a year -- the first Saturday in October and the first Saturday in April.

One of the bicycle rides in the Socorro Annual Fat Tire Fiesta will be a 16-mile loop that takes riders to the Trinity Site and McDonald Ranch. The ride takes place Friday, Sept. 18. Participation is by preregistration only. For details, see the Fat Tire Fiesta web site.

A new book, Richard Feynman's The Meaning of It All, discusses the broad issues of philosophy, religion, and society from a scientist's point of view. Feynman was one of the scientists who worked on the atomic bomb during World War II. The book contains three lectures he delivered in 1963. The volume is published by Perseus Books of Reading, Mass.

Check out the Sept. 4 "Mother Goose & Grimm" comic strip. It tells of "one of the lesser known Elvis movies" -- "Viva Los Alamos."

What is probably the most complete list of atomic device explosions is available in the Nuclear Explosion Database, put together by the Center for Monitoring Research (CMR) in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The database lists 2041 nuclear explosions and includes the official lists of all US and USSR blasts. The Center is the site of the prototype International Data Centre, which has the responsibility of verifying compliance with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

A network of 35 seismic stations set up to monitor underground nuclear testing detected India's first round of explosions on May 11, 1998. But it failed to pick up anything on May 13, when India claims a second round of nuclear detonations. One possible explanation is that the network is under development and is not yet operating with all its stations. Other possibilities are that the May 13 explosions were not really nuclear or that they were very low-yield nuclear devices.

Sources:

Dick Stanley, "For SMU's silent nuclear watchdog, shame or glory?" Austin American-Statesman, July 19, 1998, pp. B1, B7.

Suzanna van Moyland & Roger Clark, "The paper trail," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August, 1998.

Leslie R. Groves, the Army general in command of the Manhattan Project, was born on Aug. 17, 1896. Groves was an engineer who had been in charge of the building of the Pentagon before taking on the atomic bomb challenge. He oversaw the project operations at Los Alamos, N.M.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Hanford, Wash.; and the Trinity Site. He was involved in selecting Hiroshima as the first target for an atomic bomb and drafted the order stating that the bomb should be dropped as soon after Aug. 3, 1945, as there was clear weather. Groves died on July 13, 1970. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery.

Army personnel assigned to Trinity Site during World War II received an award for the lowest rate of venereal disease in the entire Army -- perhaps not surprising in light of the isolation of their location.

Source: Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 654.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on Monday (July 13). The test ban treaty has been ratified by 149 countries. President Clinton signed it in 1996, but it has not yet been ratified by the U. S. Senate. Cardoso said the recent nuclear tests in India and Pakistan should spur international efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Thursday, July 16, will be the 53rd anniversary of the atomic bomb test at Trinity site. Jim Eckles of White Sands Missile Range says no ceremony is planned. The next date for the public to visit the Trinity site will be the first Saturday in October.

A few days ago U.S news media reported that a Pakistan nuclear scientist named Iftikhar Chaudhry Khan had arrived in the United States. He claimed Pakistan had discussed using nuclear weapons in a first strike against India. The Pakistan government has denied that it considered any such first strike. Furthermore, it said that Khan had never worked with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission but had been associated with a ceramics company. It turns out the guy was an expert on bathroom tiles, not fission devices. The Pakistan government discusses the hoax on its web page.

The "O'Keeffe's New Mexico" art exhibition, now in Austin, Texas, has two Trinity-related photos on display. One shows the July 16, 1945, Trinity test explosion from a distance of five miles. The other shows the remains of a bunker that housed cameras for the test. The text accompanying the photos notes that New Mexico's isolation had given protection to its Native American culture and spirituality, but the Manhattan Project and the Trinity Test made that isolation a thing of the past. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts of the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe.

Starting in 1951, hundreds of nuclear tests took place at the Nevada Test Site 75 miles from Las Vegas. Tours of this once supersecret test site are now available, but must be arranged in advance. Contact the Office of External Affairs, Department of Energy, P.O. Box 98518, Las Vegas, NV 89193-8518. Plans are underway for a special celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the December 1950 order that established the site.

On June 11, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hand on the Doomsday Clock from 14 minutes before midnight to nine minutes before midnight. The clock, which monitors the level of danger due to nuclear weapons, first appeared in 1947. The hand was closest to midnight in 1953 after the United States tested the hydrogen bomb, when it was moved to two minutes before midnight. Further details are at the Bulletin's home page.

The current movie "Godzilla" uses film footage from "Trinity and Beyond" for its opening credits. The sequence shows a test in the Pacific, probably of a thermonuclear bomb.

Pakistan set off five underground nuclear blasts on May 28, followed by two more on May 30. The nation becomes the seventh declared nuclear power, the others being the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and India. The tests came two weeks after India conducted five underground tests of nuclear weapons.
Up-to-date information on the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests can be found on the web page of The Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

A survey by the Mellman Group for the The Henry L. Stimson Center shows mixed support for nuclear weapons. The poll of a sample of 800 registered U.S. voters was conducted in September 1997. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. The Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution devoted to public policy research.

Two questions show the split:

Do you feel safer knowing that the U.S. and other countries have nuclear weapons, or would you feel safer if you knew for sure that no country including the U.S. had nuclear weapons?

Safer with -- 18%

Safer without -- 77%

Don't know -- 5%

Do you feel that nuclear weapons improve our national security, or do you feel that nuclear weapons threaten our national security?

Strongly improve security -- 35%

Not so strongly improve security -- 21%

Not so strongly threaten security -- 17%

Strongly threaten security -- 16%

Don't know -- 12%

(Improve -- 56% Threaten -- 33%)

More than 50 years after the Trinity test, nations are still testing nuclear weapons. India set off three nuclear explosions on May 11 and two more on May 13. The Nuclear Control Institute says the tests will trigger an Asian nuclear arms race.

The National Cancer Institute has released estimates of doses of Iodine-131 received from fallout from the Nevada atmospheric nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and 1960s. Maximum exposure was during the two months following each of the 90 tests. The counties with the highest rates of exposure are in Montana and Idaho. Check out the exposure rates for your own county at the NCI web site.

A new book, Film and The Nuclear Age: Representing Cultural Anxiety, analyzes American commercial motion pictures dealing with atomic weapons and nuclear disaster. Films discussed at some length include "Fat Man and Little Boy," "Desert Bloom," "On the Beach," "Them," "Until the End of the World" and "Broken Arrow." The volume, by Toni A. Perrine, was published in 1998 by Garland Publishing Company.

The New Book of Rock Lists (New York: A Fireside book,1994), by Dave Marsh and James Bernard, lists 26 "Songs of Nuclear Anxiety." Included: "Atomic Dog," by George Clinton; "Mushroom Clouds," by Love; and "We Almost Lost Detroit," by Gil Scott-Heron.

The National Atomic Museum Store is selling Fat Man and Little Boy earrings of the pierced ears type. A pair of Little Boys is $16 and a pair of Fat Mans is $24. You can also buy one of each for $20. To order, visit the store's web page. Look under "Museum Exclusives."

Two other former nuclear test sites in New Mexico are open to the public.

Project Gnome, an underground test investigating peaceful uses of atomic explosions, took place 26 miles from Carlsbad on Dec. 10, 1961. A plaque marks the site in an area controlled by the Bureau of Land Management.

Project Gasbuggy produced an underground blast 20 miles from Dulce on Dec. 10, 1967. The purpose was to see whether nuclear explosions could be used to consolidate pockets of natural gas to make it easier to collect. The site, now part of the Carson National Forest, is marked with a plaque.

The Trinity Site is one of 25 top historical locations to visit in the United States, according to the March issue of Historic Traveler magazine.

The public can visit the Trinity Site, a National Historic Landmark, on Saturday, April 4. The Stallion Gate will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. There is a 17-mile paved road to the site.

New Mexico residents take note: The Albuquerque Journal is supposed to run a big spread on the Trinity Site in its March 22 issue.

The Trinity Site will be open to the public Saturday, April 4 -- one of two days in 1998. JIm Eckles of White Sands Missile Range says the Fat Man atomic bomb casing may not be on display because of budget cuts. But radiological health technicians will be on hand to demonstrate radiation measuring devices and test the radioactivity of ordinary household items.

The film "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie," made by Peter Kuran, will be shown on The Learning Channel at 12 a.m. EST and 9 p.m. EST on March 29. Check your local listings to confirm day and time.

The March 2 People magazine reports on the crew of the Air Force's Lookout Mountain Studios. From 1947 to 1963, these men filmed hundreds of nuclear weapons tests. Sometimes they were only two miles away from the explosion.

Return to Unofficial Trinity Site main page.