Living In Las Cruces- Spring/Summer 2008

HISTORIC HOTSPOTS

By Charlotte Tallman
Photography by White Sands Missle Range

The bright light (among other unnatural events) seen over the entire state of New Mexico and in parts of Arizona, Texas and Mexico, came from the first atomic bomb, tested in an isolated desert now known as the Trinity Site -- changing the world one blast at a time.

During the testing, there was a lot going on in the world, primarily the end of World War II. While stories of the war covered newspapers and affected so many families, it was a little more prominent than the building of an atomic bomb. And, while men and women struggled to understand the war, others, including head scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, were working on The Manhattan Project headquartered at Los Alamos National Laboratories before moving to the test site on the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on the abandoned George McDonald ranch.

The McDonald ranch house was the starting point for the assembly of the atomic bomb, starting with the bomb's plutonium core, which was then transported to the test site. Once there, the core was inserted into the bomb, and it was raised to the top of a 100- foot steel tower known as Point Zero, with the ground below it known as Ground Zero. There, the final touches were added so the bomb could be tested.

On the morning of July 16, thunderstorms delayed the test until 5:30 a.m., when scientists, unsure of what the blast would bring, sat in three observation points 5.68 miles north, south and west of Ground Zero. A fourth observation point was constructed 10 miles from Ground Zero, and the primary observation point was constructed 20 miles to the northwest of the Trinity Site. The wooden bunkers were reinforced with concrete, and then each was covered with earth.

When the bomb exploded, the Atomic Age was born with a mushroom cloud that rose more than 38,000 feet within minutes.

While many throughout the state knew something had happened, the Trinity test was kept a secret to the public until August 6, 1945, when the nuclear bomb known as Little Boy destroyed much of Hiroshima, Japan. If anyone had not heard about the Trinity Site by that point, they were sure to on September 9, 1945, when the site was opened to the press -- leading to
front page news all over the world.

Now, the Trinity Site sits surrounded by more than a mile of fence with signs expressing threats of radioactivity (radioactivity has been reduced by the removal of Trinitite left over from the blast) and two memorials. The memorials, one with the words "Trinity Site - Where the World's First Nuclear Device Was Exploded on July 16, 1945," and the other designating the site as a National Historic Landmark, saying, "This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the U.S.A." A monument built out of black lava rock also marks the site.

Radiation levels are low - only 10 times greater than the region's natural background radiation. A one-hour visit to the inner fenced area will result in a whole body exposure of one-half to one millirem.

"To put this in perspective, a U.S. adult receives an average of 360 millirems every year from natural and medical sources. For instance, the American Nuclear Society estimates we receive between 26 and 96 millirems every year from the sun - depending on what elevation we live. We receive about 40 millirems every year from our food. Living in a brick, stone, adobe or concrete house adds seven millirems of exposure every year compared to living in a frame house. Finally, flying coast to coast in a jet airliner gives an exposure of about two millirems on each trip," the White Sands Missile Range says of the radiation at Ground Zero.

Now, the Trinity Site doesn't contain much more than the memorials and a worn crater that sits where the bomb exploded, but the old McDonald Ranch that became the Trinity Site does contain a lot of memories of the first atomic bomb and the people who built it. The site is opened twice a year on the first Saturday in October and April for visitors.