WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N. M. (AP) — Visitors flocked Saturday to the site in southern New Mexico where the world’s first atomic bomb exploded, which the government says may be a record turnout amid the marching marching around Christopher Nolan’s hit movie, “Oppenheimer. “
Thousands of visitors are expected at Trinity Site, a designated National Historic Landmark that is usually closed to the public due to its proximity to the impact zone of missiles fired at the White Sands missile range. But twice a year, in April and October, the site opens to viewers. The attendance number was not immediately known as of midnight Saturday. In a post on social media, the diversity of missiles said the cars were covered for more than 3km at the site before the tours began. on Saturday.
White Sands officials warned online that the wait to get through the gates can be up to two hours. No more than 5,000 visitors are expected between 8 a. m. and 2 p. m.
Visitors are also cautioned to come prepared, as the Trinity is located in a remote domain with limited Wi-Fi and no cell service or restrooms.
“Oppenheimer,” the account of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s paintings and the top-secret Manhattan Project of World War II, was a blockbuster over the summer. Scientists and army officers established a secret city at Los Alamos in the 1940s and tested their paintings at the Trinity Site, about 322 miles away.
Part of the film’s good fortune is due to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, in which moviegoers made a double premiere of the movie “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer. “
Although the story surrounding the atomic bomb has become fodder for pop culture, it’s part of a painful truth for viewers who lived downwind at the Trinity site. The Downwinders of the Tularosa Basin plan to protest outside the gates to remind visitors of an aspect of hitale they don’t feel identified with through the film.
The organization claims that the US government never warned citizens about the testing. Soil and water infected by radioactive ash. Infant mortality, cancer and disease rates have increased. Younger generations now face fitness challenges, advocates say.
The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium has been working for years with the Union of Concerned Scientists and others to draw attention to the impact of the Manhattan Project. A new documentary by filmmaker Lois Lipman, “First We Bombed New Mexico,” had its world premiere Friday at the Santa Fe International Film Festival.
Notoriety for “Oppenheimer” gained in Los Alamos, more than two hundred miles north of the Tularosa Basin. About 200 residents, many of them employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory, were extras in the film, and the city hosted an Oppenheimer festival in July.