{"id":6120,"date":"2024-02-09T11:14:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T17:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lundeby.com\/blog\/?p=6120"},"modified":"2025-09-18T15:34:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T21:34:00","slug":"atomic-tour-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lundeby.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/09\/atomic-tour-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Atomic Tour 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Our annual visit to our good friends Tom and Mary in Henderson, Nevada, took a somewhat unusual turn this year when it became the “Atomic Tour 2024<\/em><\/strong>.” It all started after another fantastic dinner served by Mary when we retired to the Peterson big screen MegaPlex<\/em> to watch the epic movie Oppenheimer<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was just the beginning. The next evening, we moved on to the PBS documentary The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer<\/em> on American Experience<\/em>. This deep dive answered all of the questions we had after viewing the movie and gave us deeper insight into the man and the project.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Not yet having satisfied our quest for yet more knowledge about atom-splitting, the development of the atomic bomb, and nuclear testing in the desert, we ventured into downtown Las Vegas for an afternoon at the Atomic Museum.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0FACTS:<\/strong> Between 1951 and 1992, a total of\u00a0928<\/strong>\u00a0nuclear tests were conducted at the Nuclear Testing Site, 828 of which were underground, just north of Las Vegas and east of Death Valley. The US nuclear weapons stockpile reached a peak in 1966 of 31,255 warheads. Since then, due to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, that number has steadily decreased to less than 3,750 remaining today.<\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Upon returning home we continued our atomic focus by watching the movie The Cather was a Spy<\/em><\/a>. The incredible true story of Moe Berg, a catcher for the Boston Red Sox, the professional baseball player who became a World War II spy. The Jewish, Princeton-educated, multilingual, enigmatic Berg was enlisted by the US government to go behind enemy lines and assassinate the Nazi’s chief nuclear scientist before the Germans could develop an atomic bomb.<\/p><\/p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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