My wife and I made the trip to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Industry on a lovely Sunday morning in late October, 2012. The new facility was already a noticeable improvement from our last visit to the museum many years ago. That was pre-911 days, when it was still located in a musty old building on Kirtland Air Force Base. You used to be able to just drive up to the Louisiana gate and the MP would give you a visitor’s permit for the day. Back then, the museum site was directly across the street from Sandia Labs, which I thought was really fascinating. UNM used to hold some evening classes in a building right next door to the lab as well. Sadly, nowadays such an arrangement would be impossible – security being what it is.

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and Industry looks brand new, and it is. This is actually the second “new” location for the atomic museum since it moved off-base. For several years it was located in Old Town in the ‘museum district,’ but locals thought the missiles on display outside the facility ruined the aesthetics of the area. Thus, the new site was built across the street from COSTCO on Eubank.

Valerie and I paid our eight bucks and strolled past the gift shop, through the enormous lobby, laden with tiles representing the table of elements on the floor. The featured display at the museum this season was called “Atomic Culture/ Pop Culture.” This was a fairly benign exhibit, presenting many American pop culture items from the dawn of the Atomic Age.  The exhibit attempted to show the lighter side of the bombs’ impact on our popular culture, including examples of music, movies, magazines, books and TV shows related to the subject. All sorts of tacky nostalgic and historic consumer products were on display – including a set of plates commemorating the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, of all things! Bizarre. Why anyone would want to commemorate something like that is beyond me.

Further along is a chronology of early nuclear scientific research, including accounts of the discoveries, and insights into the structure of matter and the elements, along with an extensive biography of Marie Curie, the woman who discovered radioactivity – and died as a result. Also included was a display of early and modern medical equipment used in nuclear medicine called “Seeing is healing.” This exhibit highlighted some of the medical quackery associated with ‘nuclear’ medicine.

I was intrigued by several of the Nazi artifacts exhibited in the WWII room, like an old SS datebook, playing cards, and various knives, flags, and guns. I got to impress my wife with the story of the Norden bombsight, which was on display a few feet away.

In a separate room off to one side was an exhibit advocating more transparency regarding the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Several large placards were set up. I picked up a fact sheet claiming that the USA still maintained over 5,000 nukes as of 2009. This number represents an 84 percent reduction since 1967, when we possessed more than thirty thousand warheads! Madness.

Next, there was a display discussing the ‘Challenge of Nuclear Stewardship’ which gave a timeline of events from the creation of nuclear isotopes, through to the Manhattan Project. “They Built the Bomb” was about The Manhattan Project. Scientists, engineers, and administrators were featured such as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Lt. Gen. Groves; also lesser-known technicians and support personnel like Dorothy McKibbin and “Jerry” Roensch. A life-sized mock-up of the ‘Gadget’ was the highlight of this exhibit.

“The Decision to Drop” examined the history leading up to the deployment of the first atomic bombs. This display included various quotes by Manhattan Project staff, including Edward Teller’s statement advocating a high-altitude night-time demonstration detonation over Tokyo (had not seen this before), and statements by various Japanese politicians and military leaders. It also included a copy of the petition submitted by Leó Szilárd, protesting the use of atomic weapons without warning, along with several moving photographs from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The display featured a video of the remembrances of the first US photographer to visit Hiroshima and film the carnage in October of 1945.The footage of the destruction had only recently been declassified. The scenes were horrific.

A comment book was left open for visitors to sign. The only comment written on the page said: “The Japs had plenty of warning.”  Wow. Val and I were stunned at the callousness of whoever wrote that message. It just demonstrates how much raw emotion and misinformation still surrounds the use of the atomic bombs, to this day.

The Japanese were deliberately not warned about America’s nuclear capabilities in order to increase the weapon’s shock value. There were also no guarantees that the bomb would function properly in the field. Warning the Japanese in advance would have been counter-productive to the purpose of developing the weapon in the first place – at least from a military standpoint.

Citizens in both countries are still woefully misinformed about the true facts surrounding the deployment of the atom bomb. That much is obvious.

The next exhibit covered the crucial period of the Cold War. It tried to examine the strategic conflict between the United States and the USSR in the second half of the 20th Century, through US nuclear testing on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands and at the Nevada Test Site, to Soviet nuclear development leading up to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. This exhibit tracked the nuclear arms race from the 1950’s to the 90’s and covered the expansion of the nuclear weapon complex along with the various successful and unsuccessful arms control measures used through the end of the Cold War era.

A brief overview of the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was presented. The 50th anniversary of this incident recently passed without much fanfare in America. Our civilization was never closer to extinction than those two weeks in October. If Nixon had been elected president in 1960, I dare say none of us would even be here today. Under the same circumstances, Richard Nixon, unlike JFK – would certainly have taken the advice of lunatics like General Curtis LeMay and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and launched a first strike against Cuba rather than negotiate with the commies (warning: personal opinion).

Frankly, I felt there should have been a more thorough examination of this massively important historical event, given the political and sociological impact it had on our society. Too many people have forgotten how close we came to extinction, I’m afraid. Do we need another reminder? I sure hope not.

Moving on to the most fascinating displays, which included real-live examples and replicas of various warheads, rockets and guidance systems used during the Cold War:  there was an exhibit discussing nuclear accidents throughout history, including an extensive account of the Palomares disaster of January 17, 1966 (my third Birthday!) – a mid-air collision between a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker over Spain, resulting in radioactive contamination on the ground following the loss (and eventual recovery) of four hydrogen bombs. A movie showing some awesomely terrifying nuclear test footage was running on a video screen beside it.

Near the back exit, a large display case containing several different versions of presidential “footballs” was placed: inside were suitcase-sized mini command centers enabling mobile nuclear launch capabilities for the President of the United States. It was amazing to see how these devices evolved through the years, and how far ahead of mainstream technology they must have been for their time.

Outside of the museum there are several more large ‘exhibits.’ Among the airplanes, rockets and nuclear warheads on display were a gigantic B-29 Superfortress, and an even bigger B-52 Stratofortress. Also featured: an F-105D Thunderchief, and an A-7 Corsair II. Several rockets and missiles from different eras and in various stages of disrepair have seemingly been left to the elements around the back.

Over all, visiting the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Industry was an enlightening experience. It’s amazing to consider how many billions of dollars have been wasted on weapons of mass destruction which will never be used – at least, one can only hope.

Nuclear security and safety issues affect New Mexicans directly. Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia Labs are still potential targets for terrorism and espionage, and Albuquerque sits on top of the nation’s largest stockpile of nuclear warheads. The Manzano Mountain Weapons Storage Facility is an accident waiting to happen. All one can do is put their trust in the hands of the people who claim to safeguard these terrible weapons on our behalf – and pray.