12 of the Creepiest Nuclear Sites on Earth

The Atomic Age literally started with a bang. On July 16, 1945, the Trinity nuclear bomb test successfully went off in New Mexico, creating an enormous fireball that could be seen 180 miles away. Although there isn’t really all that much to see at the Trinity site today—a memorial obelisk marks the explosive spot—there are many other nuclear sites around the world where there’s plenty to marvel at. Visiting these bomb sites, radioactive accidents, missile silos, and fallout shelters is known as atomic tourism. 

Given the destructive capabilities of nuclear power and weapons, it should come as no surprise that some of these locations are pretty hair-raising. Not only are the crumbling remains of bombed buildings and vacant underground bunkers often visually haunting, but certain locations even come with the health danger of lingering radiation. Grab your Geiger counter—here are 12 of the creepiest nuclear sites around the world. 

1. Hiroshima Peace Memorial // Japan
2. Chernobyl and Pripyat // Ukraine
3. Titan Missile Museum // Arizona, United States
4. Flooded Titan I Missile Silo // Washington, United States
5. Olenya Bay Submarine Graveyard // Russia
6. Sedan Crater // Nevada, United States
7. Doom Town // Nevada, United States
8. The Greenbrier Bunker // West Virginia, United States
9. Government Bunker // Germany
10. Runit Dome // The Marshall Islands 
11. Crimean Atomic Energy Station // Crimea 
12. 816 Nuclear Military Plant // China

Hiroshima Peace Memorial // Japan

The American bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was the first wartime detonation of an atomic bomb. It devastated the Japanese city, killing around 135,000 people. Almost all buildings within 5 square miles of ground zero were totally destroyed and yet remarkably close to the impact site a single building—an exhibition hall—was left standing because it was built of stone and steel, rather than wood. The building’s skeletal remains have been preserved as a memorial ever since.

The building now stands in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park; it’s officially titled the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, but usually called “the Atomic Bomb Dome” or “the Genbaku Dome” (genbaku means “atomic bomb” in Japanese). There are many monuments and museums scattered throughout the park, but the ruins of the Bomb Dome are by far the most chilling, serving as a stark visual reminder of the death and destruction that can be wrought by nuclear war.

Chernobyl and Pripyat // Ukraine

The title of worst nuclear accident in history so far goes to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which exploded on April 26, 1986. The catastrophic meltdown of Reactor 4 led to an Exclusion Zone being set up over an area of 1017 square miles (which was later expanded to 1600 square miles) and the evacuation of 115,000 people (and another 220,000 in following years). Two workers at the plant were killed during the initial explosion and a further 28 died from radiation sickness within a few months. It’s also estimated that more than 6000 people—mostly children—developed thyroid cancer as a result of the disaster. 

Almost 40 years later, Chernobyl and the surrounding area still aren’t fit for human habitation—but there are guided tours through the still-radioactive ruins. While the reactor’s control room and the giant 35,000 tonne steel sarcophagus around the building are certainly creepy, it’s the nearby ghost town of Pripyat—which once housed the plant’s workers and their families—that’s the real spooky draw. 

Because residents were told that they would soon be able to return to their homes, Pripyat was essentially left frozen in time and has gradually decayed over the years. Those who dare to venture to Pripyat today can see children’s toys that were left behind, rusting cribs in a nursery, and a towering Ferris wheel in the city’s amusement park (which was due to open just a few days after the explosion).

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Titan Missile Museum // Arizona, United States

If you’ve ever wanted to get up close and personal with a nuclear missile, then head to the Titan Missile Museum in Arizona. There were once 54 Titan II missile bases across the United States, but the project was decommissioned in 1987. The underground silo in Arizona is now open as a museum that houses the last Titan II missile (it’s now unarmed).

Guided tours are available for people wanting to see the massive missile, which is 103 feet in length and 10 feet in diameter. Visitors can also see the underground facilities where staff once worked and lived—the sites were staffed 24/7, as there was no telling when a launch order might come in. Fortunately, such an order never did.

Flooded Titan I Missile Silo // Washington, United States

While it might seem like nothing could be scarier than standing right next to a nuclear missile (even an unarmed one), the Titan I missile silo near Royal City, Washington, proves that wrong. The silo was mostly emptied and the water pumps were turned off when the missile program was decommissioned in 1965. Over the following years, groundwater seeped into the silo and now reaches a depth of around 110 feet.

Divers can explore the flooded silo, but in addition to courage, an advanced diving certificate is required because of the depth and darkness of the water. The experience is scary from the very start, with divers having to enter through a mangled tube—previously an emergency escape route—that plunges into the ground. They then have to wade through half-flooded tunnels to reach the silo. Once descending through the water, divers use flashlights to view the silo’s gigantic shock-absorbing springs, rusted elevator, eye-washing station, and various metal staircases, pipes, and beams.

Olenya Bay Submarine Graveyard // Russia

Properly disposing of nuclear submarines is an expensive, time-consuming, and dangerous process. The Soviet Union largely avoided this important task for many years by simply sinking their decommissioned subs in the Barents and Kara Seas, off the northwest coast of Russia. Olenya Bay, near the Norwegian border, is a particular hotspot and has become known as a submarine graveyard.

The bay’s shore is littered with rusted submarines and boats; the seabed is home to 17,000 containers of radioactive waste, 16 nuclear reactors, and five submarines (one of which still has fully fueled reactors). If that sounds dangerous, it’s because it is, with six-and-a-half times the amount of radiation that was released when Hiroshima was bombed currently lying at the bottom of the sea. The Bellona Foundation, an environmental NGO, has described the area as “an aquarium of radioactive junk” that, due to saltwater corrosion, will eventually leach nuclear waste into the ocean, killing sea life and contaminating fishing grounds.

Sedan Crater // Nevada, United States

Between 1951 and 1992, a staggering 928 nuclear tests were conducted at the U.S.’s Nevada Test Site—one of which created the largest human-made crater in America: Sedan Crater. A nuclear bomb was placed 635 feet underground and then detonated on July 6, 1962; the resulting explosion created a crater that is 1280 feet wide and 320 feet deep. The huge crater is still out in the desert, alongside a viewing platform and an informational plaque.

The test that created the crater was part of Operation Plowshare, which sought to use nuclear bombs for land excavation. But the idea was quickly scrapped. While nuclear explosions are very effective at moving earth, they also leave behind dangerous radiation.

Doom Town // Nevada, United States

Another unnerving place to visit at the Nevada Test Site is the remnants of Doom Town (or, for the optimistically minded, Survival Town). The U.S. government built a variety of so-called “Doom Towns” throughout the ’50s and ’60s, all with the purpose of testing the impact of nuclear bombs on different buildings and materials. To gain as much information as possible, the houses were even filled with mannequins, furniture, and food. 

Many of the structures were totally obliterated during the tests, but there are still a few houses standing out in the desert. While a red brick house is largely intact (aside from its windows and doors), the wooden Japanese-style house fared far less well, with only its supportive beams left in place. There’s even an enormous mangled bank vault, which—while creepy-looking now—succeeded in its task of keeping its contents safe.

The Greenbrier Bunker // West Virginia, United States

Work began on a nuclear fallout shelter intended to house members of Congress in the event of a nuclear attack underneath the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in the Allegheny Mountains, in 1958. Construction was kept a secret—the resort’s West Virginia Wing was even built at the same time as a cover-up.

The bunker could house 1100 people, with rows of bunk beds crammed in next to each other and rations lining the corridors. When the shelter’s existence was publicly revealed in a 1992 Washington Post article, the government understandably decommissioned the facility. Visitors can now tour the creepy and claustrophobic subterranean space hidden away underneath Greenbrier’s grand exterior. 

Government Bunker // Germany

In 1962, West Germany’s government began work on their own underground bunker, the Regierungsbunker (which translates to “Government Bunker”); it was designed to house people of political importance in the event of a nuclear disaster. Located just outside the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, the nuclear shelter is hidden within two abandoned railway tunnels, with an additional 10.7 miles of tunnel being carved through the mountainside to provide space for 3000 people. For the scariest possible experience of the bunker’s austere rooms and corridors, tours are offered where all of the lights are turned off and visitors use flashlights to explore.

Runit Dome // The Marshall Islands 

The Marshall Islands served as a nuclear bomb test site for the U.S. throughout the ’40s and ’50s, with the 2.26-square-mile Enewetak Atoll alone being bombed 43 times. At the end of the project, 3.1 million cubic feet of nuclear waste—including 130 tons of contaminated soil that was shipped over from the Nevada Test Site—was gathered together on Runit Island and sealed under a 350-foot-wide and 18-inch-thick concrete dome.

Called “The Tomb” by locals, the concrete slab looks ominous in its domination of the otherwise picturesque island. The dome is now starting to show signs of its age—with cracks forming and chunks breaking off—but that’s not the biggest problem.

“They hadn’t considered sea level rise in the 1970s when they built this,” explained marine radiochemist Dr. Ken Buesseler in 2020. “And at the current rate, the whole dome will be at least partially submerged by the end of this century.” When that happens, the radioactive waste will spill into the Pacific, which will have a catastrophic effect on both the Marshallese people and the area’s marine ecosystem.

Crimean Atomic Energy Station // Crimea 

Construction began on a nuclear power plant on the banks of Crimea’s Aqtas Lake in 1975. Building was going well—until the spring of 1986, when the Chernobyl disaster rocked the world and led to greater scrutiny of nuclear projects.

Crimea’s power plant was found to be built on an unstable area and construction was shut down. Because a nuclear reactor was never actually installed, the unfinished building is totally safe from radiation (although it has all of the dangers of any abandoned building), but it still looks terrifying thanks to being left to rust and rot over time. For a few years in the ’90s, the decrepit structure was even home to an electronic music festival.

816 Nuclear Military Plant // China

Another building that was supposed to house nuclear power, but never did, is the 816 Nuclear Military Plant in Chongqing, China. The underground nuclear weapons manufacturing facility—which was also designed to withstand a nuclear attack—started being built in the mid-’60s, but the project was shut down in 1984 without any radioactive material having made it to the site.

The 816 Plant currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest humanmade cave, with parts of the cavernous space reaching 20 stories high. There are 18 caves in total and 130 tunnels that stretch out over 13 miles.

The dauntingly huge labyrinthine site was abandoned for many years, but is now open to the public. Those who take the tour can get a glimpse into China’s Cold War plans, with eerie neon green lights highlighting areas where nuclear materials were supposed to be. 

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