The secret city of Oak Ridge (Oak-Ridge)

September 17, 1943, the US government launched a nuclear project, code-named "Manhattan Project." Preparations for its implementation has begun a year earlier. In this article we will tell you about a secret place.

It was not the first project of the kind the Americans. Before it was "Uranium Project", which lasted until 1939. For the "Manhattan Project" was created by a group of scientists, including the Dane Niels Bohr. It was taken from Nazi-occupied Denmark. The project was bought more than 24 thousand hectares of land in Tennessee. The newly established town of Oak Ridge was surrounded by guards and is equipped outposts. The city lived and worked for more than 10 000 employees and their families. Most of the rank and file employees do not know the ultimate goal of their work, while in 1945 there was no bombing of Japan.

In the background, a uranium enrichment plant K-25. Within a few years he was considered the largest building in the world.





PPC.



Lie-detector test - a mandatory component of the work of the security services.



A billboard in Oak Ridge, it is still recommended that you see, hear and do - leave here, if you're leaving.



Photos from the Y-12 plant in calutron-operator. There was digested with uranium, but the women who worked there were not even aware they're doing.



Maintenance workers at the factory K-25.



Track calutron. Light plates are made of silver.



Here the father of the atomic bomb - Robert Oppenheimer.



Temporary barracks - main residence of workers project. For three years (1942-45) the population of Oak Ridge will increase from three to 75-thousand.



Young local entrepreneurs.



Workers at one of the local factories. In the background another billboard with the promotion of "silence."



Billboard on military subjects in January 1944. Obvious psychological preparation reaction to the bombing of the future.



The main block control room at the plant K-25.



A welder working on the territory of the same plant.



Hall Children's Club - the only real place of entertainment for children.



Teens test flight simulator.



The general plan of the plant K-25, an area of ​​nearly 18 hectares. There was produced uranium for the first nuclear weapons.



Joy Jackson Square on 6th August 1945. This is the day the bombing of Japan.



X-10 - the first in the world graphite reactor of continuous operation.



In April 1959, residents of the town voted for the removal of military control over Oak Ridge. Protections removed, and the city appeared electoral local authorities.



View K-25 in 1960.



All these pictures were taken by Ed Westcott (pictured), who was the first photographer to get permission to shoot. He still lives in Oak Ridge, and recently celebrated its 90th anniversary.



Photo by Ed Westcott