2008 APS April Meeting and HEDP/HEDLA Meeting
Volume 53, Number 5
Friday–Tuesday, April 11–15, 2008;
St. Louis, Missouri
Session J3: Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project: 65th Anniversary (Followed by Panel Discussion)
10:45 AM–12:33 PM,
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront (formerly Adam's Mark Hotel),
Room: St. Louis E
Sponsoring
Units:
FHP FPS
Chair: Benjamin Bederson, New York University
Abstract ID: BAPS.2008.APR.J3.1
Abstract: J3.00001 : A History Worth Preserving
10:45 AM–11:21 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Cynthia Kelly
The Manhattan Project transformed the course of American and
world history,
science, politics and society. If we can read about this in books
and watch
History Channel documentaries, why do we need to preserve some of
the
properties of this enormous undertaking? The presentation, ``A
History Worth
Preserving,'' will address why some of the physical properties
need to be
preserved and which ones we are struggling to maintain for future
generations.
The story of this effort begins in 1997 as the Department of
Energy was
posed to demolish the last remaining Manhattan Project properties
at the Los
Alamos laboratory. Located deep behind security fences, the ``V
Site's''
asbestos-shingled wooden buildings looked like humble garages with
over-sized wooden doors. The ``V Site'' properties were almost
lost twice,
first to bulldozers and then the Cerro Grande fire of 2000. Now,
visitors
can stand inside the building where J. Robert Oppenheimer and his
crew once
worked and imagine the Trinity ``gadget'' hanging from its hoist
shortly
before it ushered in the Atomic Age on July 16, 1945.
As Richard Rhodes has commented, we preserve what we value of the
physical
past because it specifically embodies our social past. But many
challenge
whether the Manhattan Project properties ought to be preserved.
Rather than
recognize the Manhattan Project as a great achievement worthy of
commemoration, some see it as a regrettable event, producing an
instrument
to take man's inhumanity to man to extremes.
While these divergent views will no doubt persist, the
significance of the
Manhattan Project in producing the world's first atomic bombs is
irrefutable. Preserving some of its tangible remains is essential
so that
future generations can understand what the undertaking entailed
from its
humble wooden sheds to enormous first-of-a-kind industrial plants
with
125,000 people working in secret and living in frontier-like
communities.
With continuing pressure for their demolition, what progress has
been made
in preserving some properties of the Manhattan Project? The
presentation
will share the handful of remaining properties that we believe
are needed to
tell the story of the Manhattan Project. It will share our
successes, what
is still at risk, and the on-going struggle to preserve this history.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2008.APR.J3.1