Y-12 National Security Complex [POSTCARD]

Oak Ridge, TN: Y-12 National Security Complex, n.d.. Presumed first edition thus. Postcard--this is a standard size with illustration on the front, text on half of the reverse, with space for the postcard to be addressed and stamped. very good. This is a standard size postcard, with five images on the front. It could not have been produced prior to 2003 since it references at least a 60 year history of work at Y-12. A picture of General Groves is in the center surrounded by aerial views of Y-12 facilities which highlight the changes to Y-12 over its first 60 years of history. There is an external view of Bullding 9731, the 'pilot plant', a view of the Beta-track calutron loaced in Building 9204-3. The text on half of the reverse side indicates that uch of the existing physical plant and appearance of Y-12 reflects the legacy of the World War ii and Cold War eras.On February 18, 1943, in the midst of the second World War, ground was broken in rural East Tennessee for the first production building at the Y-12 Electromagnetic Separation Plant. The plant's job was to make enough enriched uranium for a new kind of bomb, an atomic bomb.In a short time Bear Creek Valley, where the plant is located, was filled with machinery and the bustle of people on a mission. At its peak in 1945, more than 22,000 workers were employed at the site. Thirty months later the success of Y-12's mission was announced to the world when after two atomic weapons (the uranium bomb, Little Boy, and the plutonium bomb, Fat Man) were detonated, the Empire of Japan surrendered and World War II ended. Y-12 had separated the uranium used in Little Boy.Since that time Y-12's missions have changed. Y-12 played a key part in the production of thermonuclear weapons, helping win the Cold War with 8,000 people working around the clock to produce nuclear weapon secondaries.