“As you walk around, keep your eyes open for blue-green pebbles underfoot: this rock is known as Trinitite. Trinitite was formed when the heat pulse from the explosion fused the desert sand into glass. Trinitite is found nowhere else on earth. You are not allowed to take trinitite from the site, and even if you could you wouldn't want to: it is still 'mildly radioactive.' There is a small glassed box a short distance from ground zero inside the inner fenced area. This box encloses a small area of earth that was preserved in its post-test condition. In this box you will see a good amount of Trinitite. The rest of the area you have been walking on has been plowed over and under in an attempt to clean up radioactivity.”
Destination: Scotland, UK. Let’s catch a plane and go overseas, then, for a taste of doomsday, foreign style. The Secret Bunker, a.k.a. Underground Nuclear Command Centre, is in Fife, and not all that far from the famous Saint Andrews golf links. Up until 1993, this place really was top secret, a very sobering component of Britain’s defense against the undefendable. 24,00-square feet under 100 feet of solid rock and earth, this bunker has been lovingly restored and converted into a museum. There’s an RAF command center, a complex filtration system to protect the bunker’s 300 inhabitants against radiation, biological and chemical contaminants, offices and living spaces, 3-ton blast doors, and of course, a café and gift shop. That is a post-Cold War reality that you simply can’t escape at some of these tourist traps. Go to the site at http://www.secretbunker.co.uk and have fun.
