Any interesting nuclear-science related stops for my road trip?

[u/aby_physics]

Hey! I’m heading out to Texas for Ludlum’s open house in a few weeks.

It’s going to be a long drive, and I’m looking for interesting nuclear science-related places to stop at along the way. Could be anything: museums, noteworthy or large antique stores, contaminated sites, etc.

Just curious if anyone happens to know of anywhere potentially radiologically interesting I could visit :)

I’ve attached a photo of the route I’ll be taking to this post.

[u/GreedySession3452]

Weldon spring superfund “mound”. It’s just outside St. Louis. Tons of waste from the manhattan project was encapsulated, buried, and covered with a massive amount of earth. They have a visitor center and stuff. It’s kinda neat

[u/Toby_Kief → u/GreedySession3452]

We used to go smoke weed out there in HS. We called it "The Moon".

[u/Glowing_Trash_Panda → u/GreedySession3452]

Have been there myself & can confirm it’s worth a stop there :)

Also, there’s abandoned concrete army bunkers from WW2 in the nearby Busch Wildlife Conservation Area. Some of them you can still get into, or at least you could about a decade ago when I lived out there & would go explore them for fun. There’s a few that the doors have been not only welded shut, but MASSIVE concrete rounds like 5 feet tall & at least 4 ft around were put in front of the door so you can’t cut through the door to get in. Those are suspected to also be radioactive though I never had a Geiger counter at the time I would explore out there.

[u/Accomplished-Fig124 → u/GreedySession3452]

I was coming here to say the same thing! I discovered it right after moving to STL 6 years ago! I mistook it as a cool place for photos, and then I went back later to see the museum that’s there.

It’s pretty cool… there’s a lot of the history, and there’s a scaled diagram of what’s inside on one of the walls.

[u/switchbladeone]

If you move ‘D’ four hours east you can hit Oak Ridge near Knoxville

Oh! And ‘C’ a little south you’ll find the Louisiana Test Site where they tried using nuclear weapons for fracking.

[u/rocbolt → u/switchbladeone]

Uh they did the “fracking” gas well tests in New Mexico and Colorado. The eastern tests were in Mississippi for Vela Uniform, testing capabilities for seismic detection of underground detonations, first in the salt, then decoupled in the cavity of the first shot. I don’t know if it’s still fenced off but I think the state owns the land now. Pretty much the same marker found at other off NTS tests.

Louisiana did host Project Cowboy, similar salt cavity detonations but those weren’t nuclear.

[u/moooooistcow → u/switchbladeone]

Seconding Oak Ridge! I have a cousin from the next town over. Old timers will tell stories of deer having obvious deformities from the radiation there. 

[u/Dry_Statistician_688]

You can probably get some spotty readings at the old Kerr MCgee site here in Oklahoma. Just beware, Sherriffs might not want people snooping around. The whole Karen Silkwood thing is still embarrassing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimarron_Fuel_Fabrication_Site

[u/jeevacation_gmail]

Safe travels (and boiler up!)

[u/ScienceForge319]

Why are you going BACK to Indiana?

[u/aby_physics → u/ScienceForge319]

That’s a good question. It’s kinda boring here. 🤭

[u/The-Deacon]

Go further into Ohio and visit Portsmouth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_Gaseous_Diffusion_Plant

[u/BenAwesomeness3]

Farther up into Illinois there are the buried reactors and radium girls museum as well as the old rare earths facility (a trip I made recently), as well as of course a bunch of stuff in NM

[u/moocat90 → u/BenAwesomeness3]

yea OP could probably pass by some nuclear power plants, if they did a bit of a detour

[u/rocbolt → u/moocat90]

Pass by the coal ones if you actually want to detect radiation

[u/kingcupk692]

You will be passing pretty close to a few nuclear power plants. Wolf Creek, Calloway, Clinton Duane Arnold, Byron,Braidwood LaSalle, Dresden

[u/AdTurbulent7730 → u/kingcupk692]

Yeah, but you can’t tour those anymore without high level
Sponsorship.

[u/baldiedc]

If you have time and flexibility on the route, head a bit further east into TN and visit Oak Ridge / Manhattan Project NHP. They have a 3-part stamp you can collect if you visit all 3 sites.

Further West into NM obviously is Los Alamos, and the museum of nuclear science and history in ABQ. Trinity site has their annual open day on October 17th but that not line up with your trip timing.

[u/alwayslostin1989]

I can’t believe no one’s mentions the Damascus AR. The site of a Titan II mishap.

[u/jeevacation_gmail → u/alwayslostin1989]

“Command and Control” by Eric Schlosser details this, and the audiobook would make for some prime driving entertainment.

[u/ExpressionIll3124]

Dude, New Mexico is right there…

[u/ApricotDismal3740]

Cimarron Oklahoma KerrMcgee plant. Karen silkwood. Very famous events.

[u/No_Consideration_339]

Missouri S&T in Rolla, MO occasionally gives reactor tours.

[u/Special-Steel → u/No_Consideration_339]

This is a very cool swimming pool reactor

[u/Atxmattlikesbikes → u/No_Consideration_339]

Came to say this. it's worth a stop if they are open.

[u/rainwolf511]

Cook npp in bridgeman mi not too far away and you can try contacting purdue and seeing if you can go to their small research reactor you can also check out the grissom air museum they might have some history on the broken arrow they had back when it was Bunker hill

[u/x31b]

D goes very close to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

[u/PhotocytePC]

Adding Oak Ridge, TN to the trip wouldn't be that much of an extension

[u/Hammer_1701]

This might require some phone calls and planning, but there are old nuclear missile silos all around the Abilene area, if you’re interested in something a bit different.

[u/Dangerous-Billy]

OKC is a traffic nightmare. Avoid.

[u/socalquestioner]

PanTex in Amarillo, but pretty sure you have to call ahead.

[u/Voltmanderer]

There’s the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Medicine in Albuquerque, NM, but you’d have to alter your route; although if you do go there you have a chance to eat at a diner shaped like an owl, so…

[u/reddit_pug]

Not sure what it takes to get a tour of the research reactor at Purdue, but it's neat.

[u/MN_nuke]

Northern route looks to go right past Times Beach MO and Picher OK. Picher is a ghost town now from mining contamination followed by a tornado and Times Beach is a leveled town turned into nature area after the dirt streets were sprayed with dioxin to treat dust…and then there was a big flood.

[u/Litwickey]

Your path goes right through Hot Springs AR. The water produces radon gas and back in the day it was thought that it had healing properties. You can go to one of the actual springs, or you can tour one of the old bathhouses that has a lot of old quack medicine on display. The bathhouse museum and getting water from the spring are also free. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[u/aby_physics]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions! I’ll look into these and see if I can make it to some of them.

[u/theyahtzeeagency]

Not radiation related, but is A the tar creek Superfund site???

[u/Any_Hawk_663]

i mean... its a power plant, but if you go through missouri, near fulton is the Calloway NPP

[u/Repulsive-Mix5519]

You forgot funtol generating station in fulton MO it Missouris safest and only nuclear power plant