Project 816 Never Produced Plutonium

During the Cold War, China spent 17 years secretly hollowing out a mountain in Chongqing for Project 816, an underground complex meant to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Some 60,000 soldiers carved more than 20 kilometers of caverns, roads, tunnels, and passages into the rock. China halted the project in 1984 with construction 85 percent complete. No nuclear material ever passed through the facility. The site was later declassified and opened to tourists.

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