Battleship Bunker - Magnetic Method

By studying magnetic field disruptions here, scientists learned more about implosion.

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Quick Facts

Location:

Los Alamos, NM

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Los Alamos National Laboratory

This site is on Los Alamos National Laboratory property. You can only access it through guided tours offered on specific dates. Find out more about tour reservations and schedules on the Bradbury Museum website.

To develop the implosion-type weapon, scientists devised new diagnostic tests to better understand this new technology. The magnetic method measured shock waves through disruptions in the magnetic field. Initially this method focused only on small scale implosion, but eventually the magnetic method provided valuable information about full-scale explosion assemblies.   

The Battleship Bunker at TA-18-2 supported these tests and supplied project personnel with important information on implosion. 

Continue Your Journey 

 

On the US Department of Energy tour to Technical Area 18, you go inside the Slotin Building, which bears the name of physicist Louis Slotin who was fatally exposed to radiation in that building. Additionally, you may peer into the Pond Cabin  windows, where Emilio Segre conducted his plutonium research. You may also see Cavates, dwellings carved into tuff cliffs by Ancestral Pueblo people.    

Can’t get on Department of Energy tour? Learn more about the history of the Manhattan Project by visiting the Bradbury Science Museum! The museum’s interactive exhibits share stories from the project and provide a glimpse of other “behind the fence” historical sites.