“I was told I would be working on uranium, and was sternly cautioned, ‘That’s the last time you will hear that word, and you must never speak it,’” Wilcox, now 87, recalled.Wilcox’s experience was atypical of the 75,000 government workers and construction personnel who populated the gated district from 1942 to 1945. “Plenty going on,” she replied, “just ain’t no smoke to it.”The mystery deepened even more with the realization that while a great many things entered the huge structures, very little seemed to come out. "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima, made with uranium-235 from Oak Ridge The Y-12 National Security Complex is a United States Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.It was built as part of the Manhattan Project for the purpose of enriching uranium for the first atomic bombs. The Black Oak Ridge country was chosen as one of the three atomic sites for its electric power, supplied by the TVA, its inaccessibility to enemy attacks, its water supply and the then uncritical labor area. The annual budget is US$1.65 billion, 80% of which is from the Department of Energy; the remainder is from various sources paying for use of the facilities. And for that reason many Negroes did not bring their children to Oak Ridge. They were known as “alphabet houses” because each of the handful of home designs was assigned a letter of the alphabet. For a variety of reasons, including simplicity of maintenance, Tennessee Eastman decided that the Beta plant would consist of a rectangular, rather than oval, arrangement of two tracks of thirty-six tanks each. It might be possible, Oppenheimer thought, to help Abelson complete and expand his plant and use its slightly enriched product as feed material for Y-12 until the problems plaguing K-25 could be resolved.The liquid thermal diffusion process had been evaluated as early as 1940 by the Uranium Committee, when Abelson was still with the National Bureau of Standards. But it is remarkable to think that Oak Ridge’s legacy continues today. The mile-long, U-shaped plant covered forty-four acres, was four stories high and up to 400 feet wide. Many were made of cemesto, a mixture of cement and asbestos. At the same time, General Electric agreed to provide electrical equipment.On January 14, after a day of presentations and a demonstration of the experimental tanks in the cyclotron building, Groves stunned the Y-12 contractors by insisting that the first racetrack of ninety-six tanks be in operation by July 1 and that 500 tanks be delivered by year's end. The Beta facility was actually begun before formal authorization. Initial production provided mixed results, with many cans failing vacuum tests because of faulty seams.The moment everyone had been waiting for came in late October 1943 when DuPont completed construction and tests of the X-10 pile. Groves approved this arrangement and work began on both the Alpha (first-stage) and Beta (second-stage) tracks.Groundbreaking for the Alpha plant took place on February 18, 1943. Work at the Radiation Laboratory picked up additional speed in March with the authorization of the Beta process. Like its predecessor, Alpha 2 was a maintenance nightmare.Alpha 2 eventually produced about 200 grams of twelve-percent uranium 235 by the end of February 1944, enough to send samples to Los Alamos as well as feed the new Beta unit but not enough to satisfy estimates of weapon requirements. It is an experiment in what its brilliant young director, a lieutenant colonel, says “has absolutely no relationship with socialized medicine.” He calls it “The Group Insurance Plan.” Nevertheless, I advise Dr. Fishbein not to be lulled by the colonel’s reassurances. Because of the complexity and size of the plant, 9,000 employees working in three shifts were needed to monitor its operations.Until 1985, K-25 produced fuel for civilian nuclear power reactors around the world. What isn’t known is The fact of the matter is, the Smyth Report contains more information about the Bomb than most people in this town possess. Early efforts focused on securing material from the former Soviet Union;Environmental cleanup has been an ongoing issue for the Department of Energy in Oak Ridge. Located in a beautiful garden, the walk is a memorial to the individuals who came to Oak Ridge during the war. This would be accomplished by eliminating the more troublesome upper part of the cascade. “Pretty near all there was to do in those days,” a father said.Today the city has its Boosters and Junior Chamber of Commerce, and a Women’s Club. The overall impression is a combination of army base, boomtown, construction camp, summer resort. A symphony orchestra, composed of Project employees, is led by a prominent scientist. The second Alpha track now bore the weight of the electromagnetic effort.

The houses were rented, not sold, and modifications were forbidden. In addition, K-25 developed a commercially competitive gas centrifuge technology. There was to be no change in the completed racetracks; there simply was not enough time. Wiseacres said they were getting ready to manufacture buttons for the Fourth Term. Most workers at the labs knew only enough to do their jobs. Tennis courts, then the only paved surface, doubled as dance floors. They were unaware that they were building a bomb, much less the most destructive bomb … Charlie at least saw what he was making. The Knoxville, Tennessee News-Sentinel's front page headline proudly proclaimed: "ATOMIC SUPER-BOMB, MADE AT OAK RIDGE, STRIKES JAPAN."

She called my attention to the fact that in the Trailer Camps the streets were named after animals: Squirrel, Terrier, Raccoon.