Topic: Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge city (1990 pop. 27,310), Anderson and Roane counties, E Tenn., on Black Oak Ridge and the Clinch River; founded by the U.S. government 1942, inc. as an independent city 1959. For years Oak Ridge was used by the federal government to pursue activities in the fields of atomic energy and nuclear physics. The site was chosen (1942) for what was called the Clinton Engineer Works, and the city was built to house the workers who developed the uranium-235 and plutonium-239 for the atomic bomb. The community's existence was kept secret from most of the country until the summer of 1945. The project... Read more