Secret World War Two nuclear city open to tours

[The Straight Story]

Secret World War Two nuclear city open to tours

By Verna Gates

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (Reuters Life!) - Visiting a nuclear city may be an unusual tourist attraction but the U.S. Department of Energy is finding growing interest in a uranium plant once so secretive it had no address and was not on maps.

From June to September visitors can tour parts of the facility at Oak Ridge in eastern Tennessee which was set up in 1943 and ran 24 hours a day separating uranium 235 from natural uranium.

It was part of the Manhattan Project that eventually produced atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945.

But during World War Two staff recruited to the community that spread over 59,000 acres, frequently had little idea how their jobs fitted into the larger picture.

"I didn't know what I was doing or why I was doing it. I just knew how to do my job," said Gladys Owens, who operated a uranium enrichment machine.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2335392520070803

[LearnedHand]

1. There are three DOE facilities in Oak Ridge

I assume this article is about touring the old K-25 plant? Wasn't very specific.

Edited to add: If it's K-25, they've been giving tours there since at least 1990. Wonder why this is being reported as "news"?