Hidden in the mountains of Northern New Mexico lies the birthplace of the Atomic Age: Los Alamos, home of the „Manhattan Project“. Here Robert J. Oppenheimer and his staff created the first atomic bomb, „Trinity“, the scientific prototype to „Little Boy“ and „Fat Man,” the bombs which hastened the end of World War II by leveling Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the laboratory is today also a leading center of genetic research, it remains a place of secrecy, for its main mission is to maintain the existing nuclear arsenal – a task that hides behind the name, “Stockpile Stewardship”.

Atomic Ed & the Black Hole tells the story of a scientist-turned-atomic junk collector known as Atomic Ed. More than 30 years ago, Ed quit his job making "better" atomic bombs and he began collecting what he calls "nuclear waste," non-radioactive high-tech discards from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. As the self-appointed curator of an unofficial museum of the nuclear age called "The Black Hole," Atomic Ed reveals and preserves a history of government waste that was literally thrown in a trash heap.