K-25 History Center

The Interpertive Center at K-25 will be closed for the remainder of Thursday afternoon for a private event.

We are happy to celebrate the Manhattan Project National Historical Park's 10th Anniversary on April 30th. All day admission to our museum is free!
Seats are limited, register below.
https://form.jotform.com/260215565381051

A fantastic articled by D. Ray Smith discussing the AMSE Foundations efforts for Nuclear Science Week 2025.

How Nuclear Science Week helped Oak Ridge companies and future workers Carolyn Krause tells how National Nuclear Science Week was hosted in Oak Ridge last autumn and prepares you for the "Dirt Tour" of nuclear businesses

The element today is Bromine. First the basics. Bromine’s symbol is Br, its atomic number is 35, and its atomic weight is 79.90. It belongs to the halogen family, and resides in Period 4. Bromine based compounds are used in various ways, including flame retardants and photographic film, but I wanted to instead talk about something that makes bromine unique. It is the only non-metallic element that is a liquid at a normal room temperature – the other element that is liquid at room temperature, mercury, is a metal – and we’ll talk about it more when we reach element 80. So why is bromine a liquid at room temperature? It is a complicated story, admittedly, but it all comes down to something called London Dispersion Forces. I asked the handy dandy AI to explain this to my simple mind in a simple way and here is what it said: A London dispersion force... Is a force that exists between all molecules because of the constant electron movement, even if the molecule is normally nonpolar. Further, AI then told your humble museum director that Bromine is a liquid at room temperature because its molecules experience strong enough London dispersion forces, due to their relatively large size, which allows them to stick together in a liquid phase at typical room temperatures; unlike its lighter halogen counterparts like chlorine which are gases due to weaker intermolecular interactions.

Atomic History Campus @ K-25 will be closed Feb 1, 2026 due to inclement weather.