Museums & Public Tours
The Department of Energy supports museums and historic facilities across the country dedicated to displaying and interpreting the history of the Department and its scientific and technological missions. Public tours are also available at some of the Department's sites.
Museums are a major current and future resource. The Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation, partnering with DOE and the Desert Research Institute, recently opened the Atomic Testing Museum. This museum and research center, housed in a new facility in Las Vegas, includes a research area, records repository, and display area. The museum conducted its first programs in October 2003, and officially opened to the public February 2005. Community groups at other DOE sites also have expressed interest in establishing local museums.
Several DOE sites maintain historic facilities that are open to the public. The Experimental Breeder Reactor-1, at DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, is open to the public and contains exhibits and displays. Although walk-in access has been curtailed, the control room and reactor face of the X-10 located on the campus of DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are accessible via public bus tour offered by DOE's Oak Ridge Operations Office. The tour highlights all three DOE Oak Ridge facilities—Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex and the East Tennessee Technology Park (formerly K-25).
Public tours are also available at other DOE and related sites. Twice a year, the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range opens to visitors the Trinity Site, where the world's first atomic test device was exploded in 1945. DOE's Nevada Site Office offers day-long tours of the Nevada Test Site on a monthly basis.
Some of the links on this page are subject to the DOE disclaimer.
Last Reviewed: 9/2/2008
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