History creating fallout

Sites where atomic bombs were born may soon be turned into national parks.
DAYTON (AP) -- When Christine Dull was a child, she would sing Christmas carols outside a home, not knowing that it was filled with scientists working feverishly on a top-secret project to help produce the first atomic bomb.
Called the Runnymede Playhouse, it was part of a private home in suburban Oakwood that included tennis courts and a stage. During the 1940s, scientists used the home to produce radioactive polonium, used to trigger a chain reaction that would set off the bomb. Trucks equipped with special equipment made regular runs throughout the area to ensure that radiation was not being released into the community.
"We stood right around the playhouse, right on the steps," Dull recalled, adding that she couldn't remember any unusual activity and only learned what had been going on inside a few years ago.
Shrouded in secrecy for years and even decades, Manhattan Project sites where the bomb was born may soon be turned into national parks so the sites and their history can be preserved. But going public in such a big way is threatening to stir opposition, raising the hackles of people worried that it sends the wrong message.
Propaganda
"It really bothers me," Dull said. "It's going to be propaganda -- glamorizing that terrible weapon that could take down the world eventually."
Larry Gara, professor emeritus of history at Wilmington College, said turning the bomb sites into national parks is a bad idea.
"As an historian, I'm interested in preserving historic places, but anything that would make the bomb seem like a wonderful achievement is unacceptable," Gara said. "It started the age of nuclear terror."
Both Gara and Dull said they plan to voice their opposition by writing to their congressmen.
Supporters say that turning the sites into parks will help preserve an important part of the nation's history and document an incredible technological achievement made under severe secrecy and time pressures. And they say it also will be a tribute to the benefits of atomic energy.
This history, they say, should not be swept under the carpet.
"If we don't preserve these sites, we will be erasing an important part of world history and culture and a defining moment of civilization as we know it," said Cindy Kelly, president of the Washington D.C.-based Atomic Heritage Foundation, a group devoted to preserving and interpreting the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Age.
Two-year study
Next month, the National Park Service is expected to launch a two-year study of bomb sites around the nation to determine which should be included in the park system.
The legislation authorizing the study doesn't preclude any site. It singles out Los Alamos, N.M., where the first bomb was designed and built; Oak Ridge, Tenn., where the first uranium enrichment facilities and pilot-scale nuclear reactor were built, and Hanford, Wash., which had the first full-scale plutonium-producing reactor.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who sponsored the bill, has said making the sites part of the park system would elevate their importance and help promote tourism and public understanding of the historical significance of the Manhattan Project.
The park service must determine which sites are nationally significant, which are suitable and manageable as park sites, and whether the park service has the resources to do public tours or run interpretive centers. Supporters envision preserving buildings and equipment in museum-like settings.
As part of the study, hearings will be held to elicit comments from the public, including opponents.
"They will be able to be heard," said Carla McConnell, manager of the study.
Major challenge
One challenge for the park service will be to preserve what little is left at some sites.
In Dayton, two of the four buildings where bomb work occurred have long since been torn down.
Single-family homes currently sit on the site of the playhouse, which was leveled along with a lab just south of Dayton. Remaining are a warehouse on the city's east side and a former seminary on the city's west side now used as a maintenance building.
Michael Gessel of the Dayton Development Coalition said so far, Dayton hasn't come up with any plans to restore and interpret the sites.
"But I don't want to be pessimistic, because Dayton has a wonderful story to tell," Gessel said.