Atomic Towns

Here are classic "linen" post cards of the 1950's extolling three towns' atomic connections. The first is Oak Ridge, Tennessee, "Birthplace of the Atomic Bomb," as the back of the card reminds us. Oak Ridge was the "secret city" as part of the Manhattan Project to develop the bomb and remains one of the national labs.

Paducah was the site of a new uranium enrichment plant built for the Atomic Energy Commission that began operation in 1952. The plant was originally operated for the AEC by Union Carbide and eventually was operated by the United States Enrichment Corporation, though the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), eventual successor to the AEC, owns it. The Paducah plant's life has been extended another year.

The Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment Plant is actually in Piketon, Ohio, near Portsmouth. It operated originally from 1952 until the mid-1960s to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and then turned to processing for commercial fuel for nuclear power plants. It ceased operation in 2001.