NNSA Release: Seeing inside the Secret City … without setting a foot on site

The public will soon be able to get a sneak peek inside Y‑12 National Security Complex’s Building 9731 - a historic Manhattan Project-era building - without ever stepping foot on‑site. A virtual tour of select areas of the building is being developed in cooperation with the NNSA Production Office (NPO), the Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Consolidated Service Center, and the National Park Service.

Known as the pilot plant, Building 9731 was the first building constructed in the Y‑12 valley in 1943. The pilot plant’s two Alpha and two Beta calutron machines were used to train calutron operators, prove that production‑scaled calutrons could process materials, and separate other materials to see if they had any value.

Read the full press release on the NNSA website.