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| - Sometimes work and pleasure coincide, and when that happens, I have a great time. The Atomic Testing Museum really is nicely done. They cover quite a bit of material across a mix of exhibits. I was really impressed by the level of detail. They specifically spoke about many of the above ground, underground, and subcritical tests conducted by the U.S., France, and Russia. They had a wonderful video in their theater that specifically went through some of this information and more. For added effect, they have seats that rumble to help you appreciate just how scary a nuclear explosion can be many miles away from the det point. Really, all aspects of nuclear weapons were addressed in an accessible way including the issue of aging stockpiles, storage, arms policy, and even a strange nod to the Native Americans whose land was used for the testing. I particularly liked one of the showcases that captured the use of nuclear weapons in advertising, e.g., Atomic fireballs. The only thing that was clearly out of place was Sandia's donation of a video kiosk that gave a very long advertisement of their Z machine -- an example of things from work, best being left at work.
Overall, I thought the museum was really worth the visit. I easily spent a couple of hours here reading and looking at just about everything they had to offer. Many other visitors did the exact same thing. I liked that. In some museums you just sort of scan the contents and stop at a couple of places of interest. Here, everything was interesting and arranged chronologically so you could take in the totality of what has happened since these weapons were first introduced. Highly recommend.
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