Download October 2025 Atomic Tourism Calendar

Weldon Spring Site and Interpretive Center. Steps to the top. — Steps to the top of the Weldon Spring Site.

This month’s calendar features the Weldon Spring Site and Interpretive Center. Specifically, the featured image is the entrance to take the steps to the top of the site for an interesting panoramic view of the area.

The U.S. government acquired 17,232 acres of rural land, displacing 576 residents and three towns to establish the Weldon Spring Ordnance Works supporting World War II efforts for manufacturing TNT and DNT.

TNT in St. Charles County — TNT Marker noting the displacement of residents.

From 1956 – 1967, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission constructed the Weldon Spring Uranium Feed Materials Plant to convert uranium ore concentrates to pure uranium oxides and compounds. Obviously, by 1987, with production ceasing, the DOE was left with a massive Superfund cleanup site.

Weldon Spring Site disposal cell structure — Weldon Spring disposal cell structure from afar.

The outstanding feature of the Weldon Spring Site is the 41 acre, 75 foot tall engineered disposal cell structure designed to contain the site’s waste. Now a public park with walking trails, bird watching, mountain biking, and native, restored prairie, the disposal cell stairway takes you to the top of the mound with a panoramic view of the area with historical markers.

Weldon Spring Marker at the top of the disposal cell.

Be sure to go to the Interpretive Center that explains more about the area, the TNT manufacturing, the Atomic Energy Commission’s use for uranium materials, and the Department of Energy cleanup.

Weldon Springs Interpretive Site — Weldon Spring Site and Interpretive Center, Saint Charles, MO.

Be sure to download the October 2025 calendar featuring significant atomic events and atomic shots occuring during the month of October.

AtomicTourism October 2025 Download

Download September 2025 Atomic Tourism Calendar

Leave a reply

EBR-1 near Arco, Idaho — Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 (EBR-1) outside Arco, Idaho.

This month’s calendar features the Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1) which is just a short drive from Arco, Idaho, across from the Idaho National Laboratories.

EBR-I began power operation on August 24, 1951, and was decomissioned in 1964. It was dedicated as a Registered National Historic Landmark on August 25, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson and Glenn Seaborg, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. On June 4, 2004, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated the facility as a Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing.

EBR-1 was the first operating breeder reactor, which produces more fuel for the fission process than it consumes. The breeding process involved converting uranium-238 into plutonium via fast neutrons. This then heated a liquid metal (sodium-potassium alloy) through a heat exchanger for coolant, in turn heating water into steam for turbine electrical generation.

The reactor was completed in 1951, and on December 20, 1951, it became the world’s first nuclear power plant, generating enough electricity to power four 200-watt light bulbs.

EBR-1 generator — EBR-1 Generator with replicas of the four 200-watt light bulbs.

EBR-1 light bulb — One of the four original light bulbs lit by nuclear power on December 20, 1951.

EBR-1 is a museum in which visitors can wander throughout the building on a self-guided tour (May through September) to see various exhibits and information about the breeder reactor. These two exhibits note that on December 21, 1951, all of the electrical power in the building was supplied by atomic energy.

Be sure to download this month’s calendar featuring significant atomic events from 1933 to 1994 as well as 80 atomic shots conducted during September since 1945, including the last nuclear shot on September 23, 1992 (Julin: Divider).

AtomicTourism September 2025 Download

Amtrak Southwest Chief through Lamy, NM

Leave a reply

We recently took the Amtrak Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles. We stopped in several locations along the way to break up the trip, but one of the highlights was passing through Lamy, NM.

The Lamy depot was originally built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1909. The terrain around Santa Fe made running a direct line impossible, so they stopped at Lamy and built a spur line northward to Santa Fe.

For many of the Manhattan Project staff and families, Lamy was the first stop on their way to Los Alamos. Further, many of the scientists at the Chicago Met Lab (University of Chicago’s metallurgical laboratory) rode the Super Chief (now Amtrak’s Southwest Chief), which began regular scheduled service in May 1937, averaging 60mph for 36 hours and 49 minutes over 2,227 miles.

The recent Oppenheimer movie used original Pullman cars from Sky Railway, an excursion train venture owned by George R.R. Martin and others that runs on the old spur line previously owned by the Santa Fe Southern Railway. Some of the interiors were set dressed to look like they were from the 1940s.

Image credit: Oppenheimer/Universal Pictures

Although our Amtrak adventured started in Union Station in Chicago, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway departed from the old Dearborn Station, which discontinued rail service on May 2, 1971.

It was on this railway that the first shipment of uranium 235 (200 grams of 12% enrichment) traveled from the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge to Los Alamos in March, 1944. From the Y-12 DOE web site files:

“A most unusual method was used to transport this extremely valuable material. It was carefully packaged in a small room in the center of Building 9733-1. Then the material was placed in gold-lined nickel containers about the size of coffee cups. Two of these containers were placed in a briefcase size container and the container strapped to an Army Lieutenant’s arm. He was dressed in a suit to look like a salesman and along with a couple of other Army personnel also dressed as salesmen, was driven to Knoxville where he boarded a passenger train to Chicago.

“At Chicago, the courier transferred his case to yet another Army Lieutenant also dressed as a salesman who took the material on to Los Alamos. A new set of escorts were assigned to this new courier and the original group returned to Oak Ridge by way of Knoxville.”*

*[Y-12 National Security Complex, Department of Energy. (2006, July 12). Operations start and shipments begin. https://www.y12.doe.gov/sites/default/files/assets/document/07-12-06.pdf]

07-12-06-Y-12 Shipments Download

We’ve been to Lamy depot numerous times. You can read about it here: Atomic Snapshots: Lamy Station.