"Atomic Ed" Grothus at the Black Hole surplus story in Los Alamos, N.M., in 2008. John Burnett/NPR hide caption toggle caption John Burnett/NPR The Two-Way A Los Alamos Landmark, The 'Black Hole,' Is About To Disappear September 17, 2012 "Atomic Ed" Grothus spent his life collecting surplus equipment from the nation's foremost nuclear weapons lab — the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. He died in 2009. Now his family is holding a liquidation sale.