The Vault | Issue 2024 Issue

A Letter from the NSRC Director

From traveling exhibits and community screenings to panel discussions and special guests, each event was testimony to the NSRC’s special role as the custodian of the Lab’s living history and Oppenheimer’s lasting legacy.

A hidden chapter of Cold War paranoia that targeted LGBTQ+ federal workers, reshaped lives, and silenced scientific progress.

The making of the National Security Research Center’s Oppenheimer documentary.

How NSRC archivists rescued and digitized volatile nitrate films from the dawn of nuclear testing.

How the NSRC’s cutting-edge teams preserve and protect decades of mission-critical scientific materials.

Queries from the public can sometimes be otherworldly.

The world knew Oppenheimer and Teller as groundbreaking physicists. Their children knew them as “Dad.”

Founding father of detonator science and Manhattan Project–era legend dies at 105.

Rediscovered Oppenheimer photos, trinity test footage, and vital 'Bomb Books' illuminate nuclear history.