All language subtitles for Lost.Worlds.S01E05.Secret.Cities.Of.The.A-Bomb.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: This might be
the story of history's biggest

secret.

A hidden world of secret
cities and classified

nuclear facilities
built inside America.

400,000 people were part of it,
though only a handful really

knew the truth.

They told us exactly what
to do and not to tell anybody.

COREY JOHNSON: It took up
half a million acres of land.

It saw the construction of the
largest building in the world.

It cost billions of dollars.

And all these resources
were focused on one goal,

bringing an end to World War
II by building the world's

first atomic bomb.

Six decades on,
a team of experts

return to the once classified
sites where the course

of history was decided.

In green valleys
and dry deserts,

they will uncover and
rebuild this lost world.

The Army tore down the entire
community called Happy Valley.

It's gone.

COREY JOHNSON: Using the
latest in computer technology

and new evidence, the team will
uncover the most complex feat

of engineering ever undertaken.

This is the lost world
of the Manhattan Project.

[music playing]

Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

In 1941, this was still
a remote farming area.

Within two years, according
to classified plans and maps,

it was a secret city.

The government realized
that this project was

gonna take many, many workers.

So they began to design a city
that ultimately would hold

75,000 people.

COREY JOHNSON: It was going
to be the home to the biggest

secret of World War II.

The government pretended it
didn't exist because this was

part of Project X,
the Manhattan Project,

the race to build the
first atomic bomb.

Historian, David Bradshaw,
explores modern day Oak Ridge.

He's hunting for clues to
its secret wartime past.

In 1939, a group of scientists--

Albert Einstein among them--
had warned President Roosevelt

of the possibility that
Hitler's Germany might

be close to producing
an atomic bomb.

Roosevelt issued an order.

Whatever it took, the
US had to be the first

to develop an atomic bomb.

One man, General
Leslie Groves, was

given unprecedented
authority and unlimited funds

to make it happen.

He would need them.

Well, theoretically,
of course, a bomb

was possible in terms of,
uh, the physics of it.

But, uh, engineering and
all of the other many things

that had to go into making
an actual combat weapon, uh,

were quite unknown.

So this was, uh, a pretty
big gamble to start off on.

COREY JOHNSON: Land was
the first requirement.

The engineers knew that the
processes to create the bomb

would be very labor-intensive.

Groves set up facilities in New
Mexico, in Washington state,

and here, at Oak
Ridge, Tennessee.

David Bradshaw has been
searching through the archives

to find out how the Oak
Ridge facility was set up.

He's found documents showing
that Groves commandeered 59,000

acres of farmland,
an area roughly twice

the size of Washington, DC
was about to be transformed.

DAVID BRADSHAW: Leslie
Groves selected this site

to become the site for
the Manhattan Project.

If you had looked
out here in 1941,

you would have simply seen
rolling farmland, homes, barns,

outbuilding, very rural
and very much the way

it had been for hundreds years.

They picked this site
because of its protection.

COREY JOHNSON: A
study of the layout

shows how this land perfectly
suited Groves's needs.

The ridges that
surround the land

would shield what happened
here from prying eyes.

And the project wasn't just
secret, it was high risk.

If something went
catastrophically wrong,

the ridge might protect the
local population from a blast.

In September of '42, uh, the
1,000 farm owners here received

a very short letter which said,
by December of 1942 you must be

off your property.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: Farmers whose
families had been working

the land for generations
were given only a few weeks

notice to quit.

The only explanation given
was that this land would

be used for the war effort.

[dramatic music]

Once the land was clear, the
first priority was security.

Probably one of the first
security buildings built

was this one.

And it's probably one of
the last original ones

still standing.

COREY JOHNSON: These high towers
were built to keep the site

under constant surveillance.

It was as heavily guarded
as a high security prison.

You entered, uh, probably
through a spiral staircase.

There are machine gun ports,
gigantic searchlights above us.

None of the trees on this
ridge would have been here,

so the ability to have
360-degree security

would have been tantamount.

And I'm sure that's why
they selected this spot.

COREY JOHNSON: From
his investigations,

David Bradshaw has
been able to uncover

the details of the security
placed in and around Oak Ridge.

The site was placed under
guard and access-restricted.

No one entered without
high-level clearance.

All traffic in and out was
channeled through seven

fortified checkpoints.

Oak Ridge was cut off
from the outside world.

For the next three years,
no site in the United States

was more important, more
closely watched, or more secret.

And yet, Groves had to bring
tens of thousands of workers

here.

He had to quickly build a
whole new town from scratch.

A private company
was given the task.

The initial brief, as
shown on these plans,

was to create homes
for 13,000 people--

scientists, engineers, soldiers,
construction workers, laborers.

This new community would
need shops, hospitals,

schools for their kids.

At the project's peak, 75,000
people would live here.

An investigation of what remains
of the secret city at Oak Ridge

today offers clues to the
incredible speed with which

this community was built.

Just off the sidewalk, here,
are some of the very first

houses in Oak Ridge.

E apartment buildings, probably
completed in August of 1943,

built very, very quickly.

This house, this house, this
house, all the foundations

would have been laid.

Then, the framers would
have come in the next day

and framed maybe a
dozen houses in a day.

Then, the plumbers,
electricians, finally,

the finishers.

And people would have moved
in, maybe one every hour

as these came off the, off
the the production line.

Really built only to
last for 10 years or so,

60 years later
they're still with us.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: This
new town would be

a model of suburban uniformity.

What marked out Oak Ridge
was its secret mission

to build the bomb.

The Army's next challenge
was to entice workers here,

and so they produced
this document.

It's really interesting.

It's, it's marketing
by the Army.

They knew people didn't want
to be coerced into Oak Ridge,

but attracted.

And so they, they
developed this document.

Talked about what
your house would look

like, transportation, stores
and shops, a supermarket,

a furniture store, a
moving picture theater.

The, the document is fantastic.

Then, it actually shows the
different types of houses.

And it also has the rents.

A type A house
was $38 per month.

That includes all utilities,
garbage pickup, everything

you would, would want.

COREY JOHNSON:
From this evidence,

David Bradshaw has
built a picture

of what this place looked like.

In just a few months, 10,000
family homes, 90 dormitory

buildings, and
over 5,000 trailers

were built to accommodate
a workforce of thousands.

The first workers moved
in on July 27th, 1943.

They came in their thousands
from all over the US,

answering job advertisements
to join the war effort.

When I was interviewed,
I said, I'm interested

in, uh, some kind of war work.

And he said, well,
this is vital war work.

I said, where will I be working?

He says, well, I can't tell you.

It's secret.

I said, well, what
will I be doing?

He said, well, I
can't tell you that.

It's secret.

COLLEEN BLACK: I
remember coming here

and we had to be
stopped at the gate.

They searched the car.

It was scary.

It really was.

And then, when we
got into the area,

it was scarier
still, because you

think you're coming to a town.

There was no town.

There were just trailers,
rows and rows of trailers,

and huts, and all this
temporary housing, a lot of mud.

And you weren't supposed
to ask any questions.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: Although
they didn't know it,

these people were on
the front line in a war.

Secrecy dominated their lives.

We had many, many posters up.

"What you see here, what you
hear here, when you leave here,

let it stay here".

So we knew if we
found out anything,

you know, don't breathe
it, don't tell it.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: Now, with the
basic structures in place--

the security, the manpower,
and the resources--

the real work could
finally begin.

95% of the people who
worked at Oak Ridge

had no idea of what
they were involved in.

But we can now understand
exactly what they achieved.

Building the bomb would
require vast uranium

processing plants, which
would lead to the largest

construction project that
the world had ever seen.

[music playing]

As part of the
Manhattan Project,

the US military built a secret
base at Oak Ridge, Tennessee

during World War II.

Hidden from the world was
a city for 75,000 workers

and a nuclear processing
plant called Y-12.

The race was on to enrich
enough uranium for the world's

first atomic bomb.

100 pounds of
uranium was required.

Its production demanded an
extraordinarily complex process

that had never been
attempted before.

What followed was to be the most
costly and most labor-intensive

engineering program in history.

The vast Y-12 complex
is still highly secret,

still an active
nuclear facility.

Ray Smith, manager
here for many years,

is searching what remains
of the World War II

buildings for clues to tell
their extraordinary story.

Thank you.

COREY JOHNSON: In 1943, General
Groves, who ran the Manhattan

Project, ordered the
immediate construction of nine

huge industrial buildings.

Below us is the Y-12
National Security Complex.

It was built as a major part
of the Manhattan Project.

If you look, you can see three
of the nine major buildings.

The cost to construct these
buildings was $427 million.

They're made out of
concrete and steel,

and the materials were all
brought in here-- truckloads

and train loads of materials--
to build this huge facility.

COREY JOHNSON: Each
of the nine buildings

averaged 300 by
500 feet in size.

They all remain standing today,
and they contain evidence

of how this massive industrial
plant was initially conceived.

At the beginning, when they
were planning these industrial

buildings-- the nine of 'em--
they didn't really know what

the equipment would look like
that needed to be in there.

But they knew that it
needed to be large buildings

and that the equipment
would likely be heavy.

So it was built
with the huge cranes

to lift in any design that might
be needed for the equipment

that would be installed to
obtain the enriched uranium

for the first bombs.

COREY JOHNSON: Producing
uranium for an atomic bomb

was completely
uncharted territory.

Speed was of the essence, and
there was no time to experiment

or test the process.

ROBERT S. NORRIS: You had
to compress everything

into one phase, basically.

You were doing your research
and developing a pilot phase

at the very same
time you were, uh,

designing a massive building
that was going to be the, uh,

industrial facility to
make it on a huge scale.

COREY JOHNSON: Only one of
the war era buildings still

houses its original uranium
processing equipment.

It's called Beta-3, and it was
used for uranium separation

right up to 1998.

Until recently,
the exact details

of its processes, its
location, and construction

were matters of
national security.

But by exploring the secret
history behind this equipment,

Ray Smith can now reveal
what happened here.

RAY SMITH: This
equipment, the calutrons,

were actually built by
using magnets on either side

of a vacuum chamber.

These units are very heavy.

That's why the structure was
built, uh, as sturdy as it

was, to hold the large single
magnet that went all the way

around this rectangular shape.

COREY JOHNSON: They were
to be the largest and most

expensive electromagnets
ever built. To work,

they needed miles
of copper wire.

But this was wartime, and
all the available copper

was being used to make
bullets and shells.

Groves's men hit on a
drastic alternative.

Someone had the bright idea,
said, why not use silver?

Well, uh, that's, that's
a very good conductor,

but where were you
going to get it?

Uh, well, you could go to the
Treasury of the United States

and decide to get,uh, what
eventually were 14,000 tons

of silver that were literally
taken out of the, uh,

depository, and melted down,
and turned into the wiring

for the magnets at Y-12.

COREY JOHNSON: Once Groves had
borrowed the Treasury's silver,

the machinery, known as
Calutrons, could be built.

We can now reveal how
this equipment worked.

Uranium would be heated and
fed out into the enormously

powerful magnetic field.

This force would be enough
to separate tiny amounts

of weapons-grade uranium-235
from the original raw material.

38 magnets make up
one set of calutrons,

and there are 36 calutrons
in this building.

In total, there were 1,152
calutrons on the site.

The magnets were so large that
they had to keep people away

from 'em and they couldn't
use any tools that might be

attracted by the magnets.

In fact, they put a red
line to warn people not

to go any closer.

If you did and you happened to
have something in your pocket

that was metal,
like a pocket knife,

it'd suck you right
up against there.

And it would hold you there.

You couldn't get it off.

And in fact, to
get it off, you'd

have to cut the material
around the object to get away.

COREY JOHNSON: Evidence shows
that the power consumed was

so vast, that for the duration
of its wartime mission,

Project X would use 1/7 of
all electricity generated

in the United States.

1,152 machines ran 24 hours
a day, seven days a week

for a whole year.

These machines were
operated not by scientists,

but by female high
school graduates.

They were called
the Calutron Girls

and they had little idea of
what they were involved in.

PEGGY STUART: We knew we were
doing something towards the war

effort.

But it was a surprise.

And, uh, we, we were glad that
we could contribute to that.

You had, uh, dials
that you had to get--

maybe this dial lower
and this dial higher.

The units that
they were monitoring,

they actually sat
in front and would

turn these knobs as needed.

They were actually
rheostats that

would change the current going
to the magnets in the calutrons

But they didn't know that.

All they knew was
this meter needs

to stay on a certain number,
and I adjust this one

or I adjust this one to make
it move one way or the other.

They had no idea what
they were actually doing.

Nothing was ever said.

If you talked about anything,
it's, what'd you do last night?

Where'd you go?

But not about work.

All the girls was young,
pretty, and very sociable.

And we enjoyed each other.

COREY JOHNSON: Ray has learned
that the scientists still

weren't convinced these
young high school girls were

capable of doing
this crucial job.

RAY SMITH: So they set up a
contest where the scientists

operated one bay of
controls for the calutrons,

and the Calutron Girls
operated another one.

They ran them for
a week like that.

And at the end of the
week, the Calutron Girls

beat the scientists hands down.

COREY JOHNSON: 2,000
Calutron girls worked

in shifts for six months.

But the process
proved so inefficient

that only seven pounds of
uranium-235 were produced.

Time was running out.

No matter how innovative
the engineering,

to have any hope of
meeting the target,

a second plant would now have to
be brought online at Project X.

And this would require the
construction of the biggest

building in the world.

[music playing]

This crumbling edifice was
once the biggest building

in the world.

Called K-25, it was a key
building in the Manhattan

Project, and it was designed
to increase production

of the desperately
needed uranium-235.

Today, K-25 is inaccessible.

It's highly contaminated.

But our experts will discover
what this building looked like,

and find the clues
to the community that

worked to build it.

1943.

American forces are
engaged in a vicious battle

with the Japanese for
control of the Pacific.

The need to develop the atomic
bomb is as great as ever.

If they are going to produce
the 100 pounds needed to build

the bomb, scientists
need to find new ways

to obtain the precious U-235.

The solution was a new
type of enrichment plant.

If building the
town at Oak Ridge

and the vast electromagnetic
separation plant

had sapped resources,
this new phase

was to present the
greatest challenge so far.

They authorized
the construction

of a gaseous diffusion plant.

It was a much more difficult
engineering problem.

It really was a bigger gamble
as far as General Groves

and his people were concerned.

COREY JOHNSON: To
get the job done,

they would have to construct the
biggest building in the world.

They chose a site 11 miles from
the secret city of Oak Ridge.

The first pour of concrete
alone would cover 200,000

cubic yards, and
tire companies were

requisitioned to provide the
thousands of tons of materials

needed.

Thousands of construction
workers were required.

Historian David
Bradshaw is convinced

that they were
housed near the site,

but nothing today survives
of this enormous settlement.

The Army, right
across the highway,

built a entire community,
temporary in nature,

nicknamed Happy Valley
by its residents.

But it wasn't so temporary
that it didn't have things

like a school, it had theaters,
a recreation hall, stores.

Essentially, when the
war ended, the Army

tore down the entire community.

Some of the
structures were built

on foundations and footers
which we think may still exist.

So we're gonna see what
we can find and see

if we can find some clues to the
community called Happy Valley.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: Happy
Valley was built in 1943,

and David calculates that
it housed 15,000 people.

It consisted of row
upon row of trailers.

Despite the fact that the site
is now overgrown by woodland,

clues to what this town once
looked like are everywhere.

I think, right through here,
is a fire hydrant in the middle

of the woods.

Of course, it wouldn't be
in the middle of the woods

60 years ago, it would
have been in the middle

of this bustling city which
was called Happy Valley.

And really, everywhere you
look, even though this is just

the woods today, you see bits
and pieces of the thousands

of people who lived here.

COREY JOHNSON: The ground is
still flattened where the roads

used to run.

There are remains of sewage
channels and water tunnels

across the site.

I think this is
a telephone pole.

It looks like it probably
powered a facility.

And I think this
foundation was probably it.

Looks like a, uh,
perm-- definitely

a permanent structure.

This, this is part of
a lavatory, I'm sure--

a toilet.

And it probably would have
sat just like that, over this.

And it looks like over here,
there is a, what's probably,

I imagine was the sink.

So this was probably a men's
lavatory for the Hutman area.

COREY JOHNSON: Using evidence
from the site, as well as

original plans, David's
been able to bring back

to life the temporary
settlement of Happy Valley.

[music playing]

For 24 months between 1943 and
1944, this was a thriving town.

Inhabitants were
housed in trailers

and endured difficult conditions
while they were constructing

the K-25 facility.

This is the building that
they were working to complete.

It may be a ruin today,
but exploring the site

reveals clues to
K-25's top secret past.

At a cost of $512 million--
$10 billion today--

it's the size of 35
football fields built just

to produce 100 pounds
of processed uranium.

BILL WILCOX: It's an
absolutely fantastic structure.

The building itself
is, uh, four stories

high on this side, the outside.

And rather than building
a mile-long building,

they folded it into a U-shape.

And what you're looking
at is one leg of this U.

This is a half-mile long.

Each of the legs
is 400 feet wide.

COREY JOHNSON: The reason the
K-25 had to be so enormous

was that the processes going
on inside were so complex.

Gaseous diffusion
works by filtering

the uranium-238 in gas
form to produce the weapons

grade uranium-235.

It's so inefficient the
process has to be repeated

many thousands of times.

But such was the desperate
need to enrich uranium

to fuel a bomb that no
obstacle was too big.

BILL WILCOX: It
was, and still is,

the largest building that was
built in the Manhattan Project

days.

It's the largest
relic that remains.

Uh, and it is just now, as we
speak, in the process of being

taken, taken down.

COREY JOHNSON: Today, K-25
is strictly off limits.

But using original plans
and eyewitness testimony,

we can reveal what this building
would have looked like when it

was completed in 1944.

[music playing]

Documents show that it occupied
two million square feet.

It was a half-mile long
by 1,000 feet wide.

It housed 758 miles of
copper tubing, 3,800 miles

of electrical conductors,
and the amount

of water used in its
processes would have supplied

a city of five million.

When K-25 began
operations, it's recorded

that it took a
team of 12,000 just

to hunt for leaks in the piping,
which had to be completely

airtight.

Well, my job was to find the
leaks in the wells in the pipe.

And the pipes would
come in from overhead

and stop at my station.

We found the leak in the
pipe and we marked it,

and then the millwrights would
come and take the pipe off

to be, uh, welded and sent back.

And that was just all day.

We just wondered
what the pipes--

there were big pipes, little
pipe pipes with elbows,

all kinds of pipes.

COREY JOHNSON: And of course,
security was as tight as ever.

This is my badge that I
used when I worked at K-25.

I could go to the restroom,
I could go to the cafeteria,

and I could go to my work
station, but no place else.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: After
a supreme effort,

K-25 began producing
the desperately needed

enriched uranium, which would
enable Project X to meet

its target in the race
to build the bomb.

In July 1944, an armed
guard took the first sample

of uranium on a 2,000-mile
journey from Oak Ridge to New

Mexico, where some of the
greatest scientists the world

has ever known were
waiting to work on it.

It would be in the buildings
of another secret city

that the bomb would be
armed, tested, and built.

That place remains highly
classified even today.

It is the laboratory
at Los Alamos.

[music playing]

Deep in the heart of New Mexico
is the most important site

of the Manhattan
Project, Los Alamos.

This is still a top secret
facility for the design

of nuclear weapons.

But in the 1940s,
it was known simply

as Project Y. This was the
site where the bombs that ended

World War II were
designed and built.

Very little remains of the
original Manhattan Project

buildings, but our
team of experts

will search historic documents
and crumbling ruins for clues

to reveal how this place looked.

RESEARCHER: Column and footing.

COREY JOHNSON:
Archaeologist John Isaacson

has studied the Los Alamos
site to understand why Groves

and his scientific director,
J. Robert Oppenheimer,

chose this location.

JOHN ISAACSON: We, we're
at the site of the, uh,

original main gate to the
laboratory that was established

in 1943.

They were looking for a
place that was remote--

and in those days,
this was very remote--

and that also did not, uh, have
any security vulnerabilities

because of the terrain.

It provided the best
suite of characteristics

that they were looking for
to put a laboratory here.

COREY JOHNSON: When Groves
and Oppenheimer came here

for the first time, this site
was home to the elite Ranch

School.

The boys were rushed
through their graduation,

the land was requisitioned,
and the engineers moved in.

The main school hall, Fuller
Lodge, remains standing today.

And this really
became, sort of,

the social center of
the Manhattan Project.

A lot of social events
took place here.

COREY JOHNSON: As
with Oak Ridge,

Los Alamos was
built very quickly.

Its accommodation consisted of
temporary homes and trailers.

Oppenheimer would later
become known as the father

of the atomic bomb.

He was tasked with
gathering some of the finest

brains in America to work with
him in this isolated location.

You've just come from
a prestigious university

on the East Coast of the United
States or perhaps from Europe.

You're recruited to work
on a secret project,

you don't even know where.

Then, you're told to report to
a train station in Lamy, New

Mexico.

First thing you ask
is, where's Lamy?

You're taken on a day-long
journey over rutted muddy roads

into this encampment that
basically looks like it comes

out of the middle of nowhere.

You're now told,
here's where you're

going to conduct one of the
most innovative and creative

scientific endeavors in
the history of mankind.

You might have thought that
you were absolutely crazy

and had gone nuts, but that
was the reality of those days.

COREY JOHNSON: It's clear
that the conditions in which

this elite group of scientists
worked were very basic.

JOE MARTZ: This was a site
that was built very rapidly

by the Army.

They used whatever
materials were available.

They brought in lumber and they
erected shanties and shacks

in which they conduct
experiments that

were to revolutionize mankind.

COREY JOHNSON: Over the course
of three years, over 600

technical buildings
were constructed.

Now, only 30 of them remain.

In amongst the modern buildings
of today's laboratory,

John Isaacson and Ellen McGehee
are focusing on the site

where engineers created
the weapon to detonate

the first atomic bomb.

Structures are down,
but that's where the--

COREY JOHNSON: It
takes detective work

to piece together the details of
what this building looked like

and exactly what happened here.

We're at a building
called the gun site,

or also known as the
periscope bunker.

And it's the site where the
uranium gun device, the uranium

gun weapon was designed.

COREY JOHNSON: The
theory was simple,

shoot one piece of
uranium down a barrel

to collide with another.

The two pieces
would fuse together.

A nuclear detonation
would result.

But in practice, the explosion
had to be perfectly timed.

This building was where
scientific theory became

an engineering reality.

That's the best
part [inaudible]..

What was done
here was working out

the ballistics,
muzzle velocities,

of these projectiles inside
the bomb that were shooting

into each other to see if they
could get sufficient speed

to have the weapon successfully
assemble before it exploded.

[inaudible]

COREY JOHNSON: By
studying the plans,

our experts have discovered
that this structure supported

a tower that served
as a periscope.

This device would have
enabled the scientists

to observe and record each
shot while they were protected

from shrapnel in
the building below.

We're pretty sure
that the, the inside

of this periscope tower,
uh, it was light tight,

so that they would have
probably been using it to,

um, take photographs of
the actual tests that

were happening right above.

COREY JOHNSON: The
presence of these bolts

indicates where powerful
naval guns were anchored

to the ground and
shells were fired

in full view of the periscope.

This is an area where
we think that the, uh,

naval guns, uh, were situated.

You would have been able to have
a clear shot between the guns

mounted here and the periscope
structure that is just

a, a little bit to the north.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: Using
their findings,

the experts can now bring
this lost world to life.

The gun site and periscope
were built into the landscape,

and the bunker was covered with
a protective three-foot layer

of earth.

The naval cannon on
top of the bunker

would have fired the ordnance.

High-speed movie cameras
mounted in the periscope

would have allowed
the scientists

to calibrate the speed and
power of the explosion.

And they would
fire these weapons,

and they would understand with
great precision and detail

the speed of the
projectiles, the time it took

from the ignition of the charge
until the projectile began

moving.

Those minor details were very
important in ensuring that they

could assemble the critical
mass necessary to sustain

the nuclear reaction.

COREY JOHNSON: The
tests at the gun site

gave the engineers the data
they needed to build a bomb they

were confident would work.

But then, a new
scientific breakthrough

indicated that it might now
be possible to build a bomb

from a new substance, plutonium,
which would prove even more

destructive than
the uranium device.

And this bomb would require the
building of a totally new test

site, and would
present the engineers

at Los Alamos with their
biggest challenge yet.

[music playing]

This is the V-site
at Los Alamos--

a collection of ramshackle
sheds abandoned for years.

Our investigators
are here because it

was in these buildings that
some of the most dangerous

experiments of the Manhattan
Project took place.

By studying new evidence,
it's possible to understand

what this lost world looked
like and what happened here.

By 1944, a uranium-fueled
nuclear bomb

was near completion.

But scientists at Los
Alamos have been presented

with another possibility--

to make an even more
destructive bomb

from a different kind of fuel.

This totally new material
that was discovered,

and that is plutonium, uh, and
the scientists had actually

been able to do enough
calculations to try

to understand that plutonium
would probably be a better

bomb than uranium.

COREY JOHNSON: So a
new race was underway.

A whole complex of buildings
was constructed at Los Alamos.

ELLEN MCGEHEE: This
area is called V site.

But during the war,
this was actually

called technical area 25.

They, they came out here
and used this little area

as a special, sort of, um,
high security secret area

for working on the
implosion device.

COREY JOHNSON:
The engineers were

entering uncharted territory.

But they knew that what
they were going to attempt

was highly dangerous and
would require a new type

of explosives research.

The idea is to start
with a sphere of plutonium

and to compress it using high
explosives to a point where now

it could sustain a
critical reaction.

This was a challenge for
explosive development.

Normally with explosives we
would blow things up, not

try to blow them inward.

And so the implosion
concept was created.

COREY JOHNSON: The military
needed this work done fast,

so no time was lost in building
the explosives workshops.

JOHN ISAACSON: A
lot of this stuff

was salvaged from
other construction--

Absolutely.

--projects, because when they
decided to build this area,

it was just like, come on, we
gotta get a place to put this

together.

Grab some stuff from other
places around the la, uh,

around the laboratory,
and throw it together,

and get us a building
as quick as you can.

COREY JOHNSON: The designers
knew that the people working

at the V site would be
handling powerful, often

unstable, high explosives.

The experts have been able to
identify a series of safety

precautions which were built.

This is part of a,
uh, a surface that

was around the buildings
in this whole area.

And this is uh, a spark, uh,
suppressant material that

was on the ground
because they're

working with high explosives.

COREY JOHNSON: There wasn't
just the threat of sparks.

[thunder booming]

There was also New Mexico's
freak weather to contend with.

This is one of the
highest lightning strike

areas in the United States.

So during the summer,
during the monsoon period,

we get lots of lightning.

And so lightning
is a major issue

in this whole high
explosives area.

COREY JOHNSON: The
engineers' role at the V site

was to pack the explosive
tightly around the plutonium

core, and to verify that
there wasn't even the smallest

gap, as this might disrupt
the critical detonation

process which had to
be totally uniform.

The big fear was that in
such high-risk operations,

an accident might ignite
the many tons of TNT stored

in the huts.

And so key buildings
were surrounded

by protective outer
walls called berms.

Now, this is the berm back
here behind us, of course, that

was, that was built
as a protective device

for the high explosives.

JOHN ISAACSON: And
these berms really

were designed, uh,
during the project

to protect people and buildings
behind it, so that if there--

it would limit the damage
if there was an accident.

COREY JOHNSON: Using original
plans and new evidence

from the site, our
experts now understand

how this protective
technique worked.

[music playing]

Next to each workshop,
a 12-foot berm

was erected, held in place
by shock absorbing metal rods

and backfilled with earth.

In the event of an
explosion, there

would be no saving
the people inside.

The purpose of the berm was to
protect the surrounding area.

The ordnance engineers who
were sent into the workshops

to assemble the
high-explosive charges

were aware of the
dangers they faced.

One of them was
George Kistiakowsky.

Kistiakowsky was asked
by, uh, someone, you know,

weren't you afraid
of, you know, drilling

into these high
explosives and pouring

in this molten high explosives
that they would explode?

And he said, well, you
know, if it exploded,

I would never know.

So he was pretty blasé
about the whole thing.

And I think they had an attitude
that a certain level of risk

was acceptable because,
because it was wartime.

COREY JOHNSON: By May 1945,
two implosion bombs had

successfully been
built. The engineers

persuaded the military
to let them test one

of these precious new devices.

But there was great concern.

Should the test fail, the
plutonium might all be wasted.

Ellen McGehee has been studying
this strange concrete bowl,

which she reveals was
a device to salvage

the precious plutonium.

They were worried that when
they did the test, that, um,

that basically the conventional
explosives would detonate,

but they wouldn't have
an exothermic reaction.

And that the world's, or
close to the world supply

of plutonium, would
just basically

get scattered to the winds.

[music playing]

COREY JOHNSON: The
engineers' solution

was to build this huge bowl,
over 220 yards in diameter.

If the plutonium
didn't detonate,

the exploding TNT would simply
scatter it into this pool.

The water would be filtered
and the plutonium collected.

But with time running out,
this approach was abandoned.

The engineers decided
to proceed with the test

without attempting to recover
the plutonium if it failed.

The world's first
test of a nuclear bomb

was set for the
16th of July, 1945,

to take place in a
huge area of desert

200 miles South of Los
Alamos called Alamogordo.

Before this first
detonation, the engineers

feared that the bomb might not
be powerful enough, or worse

that they had created
something that

was entirely uncontrollable.

JOE MARTZ: So one of the
great uncertainties associated

with the first test was how
much energy that the test would

produced, what would be
the yield of the weapon?

Indeed, scientists took
a number of wagers as to

whether or not the
ignition of that device

might cause a reaction between
the nitrogen and the oxygen

in the atmosphere, and
thus ignite the atmosphere

and cause a total conflagration.

COREY JOHNSON: 27 months of
work, vast human and material

resources mobilized in secret
at a cost of over $2 billion.

It all culminated here,
with the detonation

of the first atomic bomb.

The local population reported
a blinding white flash

visible for a
radius of 150 miles,

and audible for
200 miles around.

ROBERT S. NORRIS: A press
release was prepared ahead

of time saying that an
ammunition dump had exploded,

and that was what caused the,
um, bright light to occur

on the dawn of July 16.

And, uh, lo and behold, that
was printed in the paper,

and, uh, people,
I suppose, said,

well, I guess that was
an ammunition dump,

and, uh, took the
newspaper at its word.

COREY JOHNSON: Few
witnesses realized

they had seen something
which would define history.

The greatest force for
destruction that the world had

ever seen, borne from the
largest construction project

ever undertaken.

SIG HECKER: Uh, the
logistics are mind boggling.

I mean, it takes 27
months these days

to do an environmental
impact statement.

Uh, and these gentlemen were
able to put everything together

in that time frame.

COREY JOHNSON: Three
weeks after the test,

the first uranium bomb would
explode over the Japanese city

of Hiroshima, and the plutonium
bomb would destroy Nagasaki

three days after that.

With war over,
these buildings were

allowed to fade and crumble.

They were hidden behind
razor wire fences and a wall

of secrecy.

Communities like Happy Valley
disappeared from sight forever,

but their legacy lives
on in a new generation

of technological secrets
born out of the lost

world of the Manhattan Project.

[music playing]