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

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.