Places
B Reactor: The Columbia River Machine That Stalled on Its Second Day
In September 1944 the world's first full-scale plutonium reactor went critical beside the Columbia River, then shut itself down a day later. B Reactor made plutonium for Trinity and Nagasaki, ran on into the Cold War, and now takes visitors on free tours.
The Pyramid on the Prairie: America’s Short-Lived Missile Shield in North Dakota
In the flat farmland of north-east North Dakota stands a four-sided concrete pyramid built to guide nuclear-tipped missiles against a Soviet attack. It cost billions, reached full readiness on 1 October 1975, and was ordered closed the next day.
Yucca Mountain: The Nuclear Tomb America Dug and Never Used
In the Nevada desert there is a five-mile tunnel drilled to hold the nation's spent nuclear fuel for a hundred thousand years. It was never filled. After decades of fighting, billions of dollars and a vote in Congress aimed at one state, Washington is now looking for a different place to put the waste.
Rebirth Island: The Soviet Germ Warfare Range the Aral Sea Left Behind
For decades the Soviet Union sprayed anthrax, plague and tularemia over animals tied to stakes on a remote island in the Aral Sea. Then the sea drained away, the island joined the mainland, and the pits where the leftover spores were buried became an international problem.
Željava Air Base: The Mountain Yugoslavia Hollowed Out for Its Jets
On the Croatian side of the border with Bosnia, a Cold War airbase was cut into a mountain so that MiG-21s could be hidden, fuelled and launched from inside it. In May 1992 the army that built it blew it up, and the mountain has been quiet, mined and half forgotten ever since.
The Cape Romano Domes: A Solar-Powered Dream Swallowed by the Gulf
Six white concrete domes stood on stilts off the southwest Florida coast, a solar-powered home built in the early 1980s by a retired oilman. Erosion left them in the open sea, and in 2017 and 2022 the hurricanes brought them down. They now lie under the Gulf.
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