In the 1940s, Alpha Combs had a job at Clinton Engineering Works in what is now called Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

If you have seen the movie Oppenheimer or know the history then you know the work at CEW was critical to the Manhattan Project. We explore what happened in rural East Tennessee in the 1940s through the eyes of one woman who lived that history.

Today Alpha Combs is 100 years old.

Back in the 40s she was part of the effort to enrich uranium for the world's first nuclear bombs.

The process to enrich uranium in Oak Ridge required the uranium to be pumped through a maze of pipes.

Part of Alpha Combs's job was checking the pipes that held the uranium for leaks, but she and most others most others didn't know what they were working on.

They weren't allowed to talk about their jobs, not with co-workers, not with family, no one.

On this episode of Tomorrow Town, Tennessee one woman's experience during the making of the atomic bomb.

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