This enormous national lab helped give birth to the nuclear age — here's what's going on inside now

Lydia Ramsey

LEMONT, Illinois — I thought my first visit to a Department of Energy lab would be reminiscent of the Hawkins National Laboratory, the top-secret facility depicted in "Stranger Things."

The Argonne National Laboratory, founded in 1946, is roughly 30 miles from downtown Chicago in Lemont, Illinois. It grew out of the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, which resulted in the development of the atomic bomb. 

I recently toured the facility, and though I didn't find any demogorgons or teens with telekinetic abilities, I watched scientists work with sponges that can soak up oil and longer-lasting next-generation batteries.

Here's what it was like inside. 

At Argonne National Laboratory, more than 1,600 scientists and engineers research basic biology and chemistry, and tackle major challenges like finding new sources of energy and protecting the environment. Argonne's campus takes up 1,500 acres, and houses the Advanced Photon Source, a circular structure that's 1.1 kilometers in circumference.

The Advanced Photon Source, or APS, is essentially a powerful X-ray machine that can see a lot more than the technology doctors use to diagnose broken bones. Inside the APS's big ring-shaped facility, metal tubes carry high-energy X-rays that scientists can use to image materials from cancer drugs to butterfly wings.

The X-rays are split up into beams so that a number of researchers can use them at the same time in separate areas around the building.