Travel Guide Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge is a city of 29,300 people located in Anderson and Roane Counties, 41 kilometres west of Knoxville. Often referred to as Atomic City or Secret City, Oak Ridge was created in 1942 as part of the Manhattan project to research the first atomic bomb, replacing several farming communities. Between 1942 and 1945, the population of Oak Ridge increased from 3,000 to 75,000 people. However, the existence of the site was kept secret until the end of the Second World War. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which specializes in nuclear research, is still active there and represents, with its annexes, the main source of employment in the city. Oak Ridge also has a research laboratory at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Three of the four large facilities created for the production of the bomb are still standing today: the K-25 site, the first one built in Oak Ridge. Uranium was enriched there by the gaseous diffusion process until 1985. It is now being dismantled; site Y-12, originally used for the electromagnetic separation of uranium. It is still used for the development of nuclear weapons and the processing of storage materials; site X-10, the former graphite reactor test site, has become the site of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The city is quite spread out. Several shopping malls and restaurants are scattered on both sides of Illinois Avenue, the major thoroughfare that crosses it. Integrated into the "Bible Belt", Oak Ridge has a large number of Protestant churches (Methodist and Baptist), as well as a Catholic church. We stop in Oak Ridge mainly to visit its Science Museum, which combines the city's history and the secrets of atoms. However, it is a more youth-oriented place.