Albuquerque: National Atomic Museum to embrace diverse history, use of technology

Information via the www.abqhomelearners.org

When the Sandia Atomic Museum opened in 1969, a menacing collection of missiles and military aircraft surrounded its nondescript building on Kirtland Air Force base.

When it moved to its present building three decades later as the National Atomic Museum, a 60-foot high Redstone missile heralded the Old Town location.

But when the museum begins its third incarnation next spring under the revised name of the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, emphasis on military usage will give way to a less inflammatory and "broader scope" of nuclear energy.

"It will be a little like the Wal-Mart of nuclear science," said Jim Walther, the museum's director for the past 11 years. "As we move to the new (facility), more and more space will be devoted to the other parts of the story."

Construction on the 12-acre site at Eubank and Southern boulevards Southeast, which is owned by the Department of Energy, is scheduled to begin within the next month or two. An additional $2 million of the facility's projected $10.5 million cost remains to be raised.

While the nonfunctional versions of "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" — the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II — will remain, new exhibits will downplay weapons emphasis in favor of prompting "global conversations on nuclear issues" and seeking solutions to nuclear dilemmas, Walther said.

In addition, there will be exhibitions devoted to beneficial uses of nuclear energy, such as nuclear medicine and radiation treatments. A display like the restored 1941 Packard stretch limousine owned by physicist Robert Oppenheimer — who expressed regret about his role in creating the bombs dropped on Japan — is designed to appeal to car buffs as much as to the scientifically curious.

Even the descriptions of the new facility used on the museum's Web site (atomicmuseum.org) use careful and politically amorphous language. A central courtyard, to be called "EnVision Plaza," will "honor the spirit of scientific discovery and military service." The museum's "vision," it says, encourages visitors to "engage in critical thinking."

The museum foundation board abandoned its original plans for a $20 million facility at Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, whittled funding resources. The federal government has since contributed $5 million to the new facility (down from the $12 million originally requested) and corporate, state and private donations have added an additional $3.5 million.

Though it "might not be quite as easy as raising money for animal shelters," Walther is "absolutely" confident the remaining necessary funds will be raised in time for the museum to beat the April 2009 lease expiration at its present location.

"It's not easy to raise money from nuclear science companies," he said. "But it's not that they're not interested. It's just that they don't have as much of a history of philanthropy."



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