National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, New Mexico

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History is the new name for the National Atomic Museum. Before 9/11, the National Atomic Museum was located on Kirtland Air Force Base, and operated by Sandia National Lab. After a few years at a temporary location next to the Albuquerque Museum, it opened in a large new building, located just outside the gates of Kirtland, in 2009. Much of its contents are the same as its former version, though new exhibits, expressing the point of view of its new corporate sponsors, have been added. The museum has a gallery of artifacts and informational displays about the nation's nuclear weapons development program, including numerous nuclear weapons casings, including those of Fat Man and Little Boy, the types of bombs used on Japan in World War II. In the lot outside is a nuclear cannon, several aircraft, including a B-29 and a B-52, and the 24 foot long casing of a Mk. 17 hydrogen bomb, the same type that fell out of a B-36 bomber on its descent into Kirtland Air Force Base in 1957.