Human radiation studies: Remembering the early years. Oral history of Julie Langham Grilly, February 3, 1995

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1995-09-01

Julie Langham Grilly was interviewed by representatives of the US DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments (OHRE) being the widow of Dr. Wright Langham, an investigator of principal interest of the committee. Her extensive experience with research at LANL was also of interest to the committee. Following a brief biographical sketch, Ms. Grilly relates her early postwar experience and her knowledge of Wright Langham`s involvement in animal research at Los Alamos, radiolanthanum tests on monkeys, Eniwetok tissue examinations, research on tritium uptake in humans, plutonium injections, tritium injections, EDTA, and etc. In addition to illuminating her former husband as amore » researcher and as an individual, she also relates her remembrances of Louis Hempelman, Enrico Fermi, Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and many others.« less

Operation IVY, Pacific Proving Grounds, November 1952. Project 11.5. Radiobiological Studies at Eniwetok before and after Mike Shot

DTIC Science & Technology

1953-06-01

by Species 4.3.3 Radiochemical Analysis 4.4 Invertebrates 4.4.1 Pretest . 4.4.2 Posttest . 15 16 16 18 19 19 19 19 20 20...with Highest Activity, Pretest 4.7 Frequencies of Invertebrate Ashed-sample Counts by Magnitudes, Pre- anc" Posttest .......... 4.8...JANET) BOGOMBOGO (BELLE) BOGALLUA (ALICE) 0 1 2 3 4 5 - PRETEST STATION • - POSTTEST STATION AOMON (SALLY) BIIJIRI (TILDA) ROJOA (URSULA

OPERATION GREENHOUSE. Scientific Director’s Report of Atomic Weapon Tests at Eniwetok, 1951, Annex 9.5. Base Facilities

DTIC Science & Technology

1951-09-01

DataOT JOL/IHüJ rJÄL. ti’ VU ’ 3 SPECIAL ft£hhl«;l FivüJaöl ! y * INS GREENHOUSE l ^ Statement A 0\\ Approved for public re!ofese...began in December 1951 and was essentially completed at the end of Operation Greenhouse in June 1951. The A-E T-M con- tractor, Holmes and Narver...repair, and store de- Cleanup and roll-up of humidification units No schedule Muzinbaarikku Aug. 1 Clean, repair, and store elec- Mechanical

Einsteinium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haire, Richard G.

The discovery of einsteinium, element 99, came about during the analyses of nuclear products produced in and then recovered from test debris following a thermonuclear explosion (weapon test device, ‘Mike', November 1952) at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The uranium present in this device was subjected to a very intense neutron flux (integrated fluence of about 1024neutrons) in an extremely short time frame (few nanoseconds), which allowed a large number of multiple neutron captures with a minimal degree of decay of the products formed. Nuclei were formed with usually high neutron/proton ratios (very ‘heavy' uranium isotopes), which then rapidly beta-decayed into new, transuranium isotopes through element 100. Scientists from several U.S. Government laboratories separated and analyzed extensively the debris samplings in the following weeks. From these investigations came the discovery and identification of einsteinium and fermium. The first element was named in honor of Albert Einstein, and assigned the symbol, E (later changed to the current symbol, Es). Additional details and discussions about the discovery of this element and the scientists involved are given in several references (Thompson et al., 1954; Ghiorso et al., 1955; Fields et al., 1956; Hyde et al., 1964; Seaborg and Loveland, 1990).

OPERATION GREENHOUSE. Scientific Director’s Report of Atomic Weapon Tests at Eniwetok, 1951. Annex 6.7. Contamination-Decontamination Studies

DTIC Science & Technology

1951-08-01

and Seques- trene AA at a pH of 5 (with sodium hydroxide). Breeze, one of the agents used, is a commer- cial synthetic detergent com^Pte with addi...9,299] D E I ll s w 1 Ü Mert 12 50 134 47 229 657 68 322 1,110 34 138 335 87 415 1,720 92 442 1,700 69 278 1,180 399...Continued BRA88 (1025) STAINLESS STEEL (38) STAINLESS STEEL (45) .1 IS 5 II .1 OH II IS a 8 S Si Si r it IS a m 8 2 .1 a o

Operation Greenhouse. Scientific Director's report of atomic-weapon tests at Eniwetok, 1951. Annex 1. 11. Timing and firing and fiducial markers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grier, H.E.

1985-09-01

An automatic remote-control system armed and fired the bomb and sent out a sequence of time signals to experimental equipment on the atoll. A central station at Parry Island sent signals via submarine cables to a timer station on a shot island. The timer station controlled signals to the zero station and to experiments on the island, and through auxiliary stations, it also controlled signal distribution on adjacent islands. Light-sensitive triggering units for apparatus and for accurate standard zero-time reference were provided in the form of Blue Boxes, or fiducial markers.

Thyroid nodules, thyroid function and dietary iodine in the Marshall islands.

PubMed

Takahashi, T; Fujimori, K; Simon, S L; Bechtner, G; Edwards, R; Trott, K R

1999-08-01

Thyroid nodules have been found to be common in the population of the Marshall Islands. This has been attributed to potential exposure of radioiodines from the nuclear weapons tests on Bikini and Eniwetok between 1946 and 1958. In order to get a full picture of thyroid pathology in the Marshallese population potentially exposed to radioactive fallout we performed a large thyroid screening programme using palpation, high resolution ultrasound and fine needle biopsies of palpable nodules. In addition, various parameters of thyroid function (free T3, free T4, thyroid stimulating hormone [TSH]) and anti-thyroid antibodies were examined in large proportions of the total population at risk. Since dietary iodine deficiency is an established risk factor for thyroid nodules, iodine concentration in urine samples of 362 adults and 119 children was measured as well as the iodine content of selected staple food products. The expected high prevalence of thyroid nodules was confirmed. There was no indication of an increased rate of impaired thyroid function in the Marshallese population. A moderate degree of iodine deficiency was found which may be responsible for some of the increased prevalence of thyroid nodules in the Marshallese population. Studies on the relationship between exposure to radioiodines and thyroid nodules need to take dietary iodine deficiency into account in the interpretation of findings.

Operation greenhouse. Scientific director`s report of atomic weapon tests at Eniwetok, 1951. Annex 8.1. Blast effects on aircraft in flight. Nuclear explosion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wayne, J.C.; Lehmkuhl, J.C.

1951-10-01

The primary objective of this report is to present data concerning the structural and aerodynamic loads as measured on various types of aircraft, in flight, in the vicinity of an atomic explosion. A secondary objective is to describe the instrumentation (installation, calibration, and operation) in order to provide for the future planning and conduct of similar tests. The data presented herein were obtained on Dog, Easy, and George shots of Operation Greenhouse. The airplanes used to collect these data were B-17`s, T-33`s, B-50D`s and one XB-47. These instrumented airplanes were arrayed at preassigned locations in the air space above themore » explosions. A total of approximately 250 channels of information were obtained which essentially consisted in wing bending, torsion, and shear at the root, mid-span, and outer panel; horizontal stabilizer bending at the root; normal accelerations at the nose, c.g., and tail; aerodynamic pressures at various locations on the airplanes; and temperatures experienced by various critical components of the airplane. The positions of the airplanes at the time of shock arrival were accurately determined by means of radar tracking. The measured data were correlated by means of time signals, every second, from a land based radio transmitter station, and with reference to time zero, by means of a photoelectric cell. The recorded data show that the loads produced by the shock wave were in general accord with theory. The loading experienced by an airplane while passing through the `puff` of the atomic cloud is shown to be considerably higher than that caused by the shock wave. For this reason the penetration of the puff should be avoided even by `sampling` drones.« less

Nuclear Bombs and Coral: Guam Coral Core Reveals Operation-Specific Radiocarbon Signals from the Pacific Proving Grounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andrews, A. H.

2016-12-01

Radiocarbon (14C) analyses on a coral core extracted from the western Central Pacific (Guam) has revealed a series of early peaks in the marine bomb 14C record. The typical marine bomb 14C signal, one that is phase lagged and attenuated relative to atmospheric bomb 14C, is present in the coral core and is consistent with other North Pacific records. However, 14C levels that are well above what can be explained by air-sea diffusion alone punctuate this pattern. This anomaly has been demonstrated to a limited extent in other coral cores of the Indo-Pacific region, but is unmatched relative to the magnitude and temporal resolution recorded in the Guam coral core. Other records have shown an early Δ14C rise on the order of 40-50‰ above pre-bomb levels, with a subsequent decline before continuing the gradual Δ14C rise that is indicative of air-sea diffusion of 14CO2. The Guam coral Δ14C record provided three strong pulses in 1954-55, 1956-57, and 1958-59 that are superimposed on the pre-bomb to initial Δ14C rise from atmospheric bomb 14C. Each of these peaks can be directly linked to testing of thermonuclear devices in the Pacific Proving Grounds at Eniwetok and Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands. The measurable lag in reaching Guam can be tied to ocean surface currents and can be traced to other regional Δ14C records from corals, providing a transport timeline to places as distant as the Indonesian throughflow, Okinawa and Palmyra.

John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs: an Unlikely Collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernstein, Jeremy

2010-03-01

I discuss the origin of the idea of making a fusion (hydrogen) bomb and the physics involved in it, and then turn to the design proposed for one by the unlikely collaborators John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs in a patent application they filed at Los Alamos in May 1946, which Fuchs passed on to the Russians in March 1948, and which with substantial modifications was tested on the island of Eberiru on the Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific on May 8, 1951. This test showed that the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei could be ignited, but that the ignition would not propagate because the heat produced was rapidly radiated away. Meanwhile, Stanislaw Ulam and C.J. Everett had shown that Edward Teller’s Classical Super could not work, and at the end of December 1950, Ulam had conceived the idea of super compression, using the energy of a fission bomb to compress the fusion fuel to such a high density that it would be opaque to the radiation produced. Once Teller understood this, he invented a greatly improved, new method of compression using radiation, which then became the heart of the Ulam-Teller bomb design, which was tested, also in the South Pacific, on November 1, 1952. The Russians have freely acknowledged that Fuchs gave them the fission bomb, but they have insisted that no one gave them the fusion bomb, which grew out of design involving a fission bomb surrounded by alternating layers of fusion and fission fuels, and which they tested on November 22, 1955. Part of the irony of this story is that neither the American nor the Russian hydrogen-bomb programs made any use of the brilliant design that von Neumann and Fuchs had conceived as early as 1946, which could have changed the entire course of development of both programs.

OPERATION SANDSTONE. Scientific Director’s Report of Atomic Weapon Tests at Eniwetok, 1948. Annex 12. Parts 1 and 2. Biological and Animal Container Studies (Service Test Number 7)

DTIC Science & Technology

1948-01-01

prevent the removal of the inner containers. Several of the can covers were Jammed requiring sledging before they could be emoved. The results...tubes, each B. Seeds 1. Corn (M. T. Jenkins) 15 bags, 6 varieties a. L 289 x 1205 b. Strawberry popcorn c. Perdue 51 (d22) d. Tetraploid e. F2

Operation Greenhouse. Scientific Director's report of atomic weapon tests at Eniwetok, 1951. Annex 1. 6, blast measurements. Part 3. Pressure near ground level. Section 4. Blast asymmetry from aerial photographs. Section 5. Ball-crusher-gauge measurements of peak pressure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1985-04-01

Aerial motion pictures from manned aircraft were taken of the Dog, Easy, and George Shots and from a drone aircraft on Dog Shot to determine whether asymmetries in the blast waves could be detected and measured. Only one film, that taken of Dog Shot from a drone, was considered good enough to warrant detailed analysis, but this failed to yield any positive information on asymmetries. The analysis showed that failure to obtain good arrival-time data arose from a number of cases, but primarily from uncertainities in magnification and timing. Results could only be matched with reliable data from blast-velocity switchesmore » by use of large corrections. Asymnetries, if present, were judged to have been too small or to have occurred too early to be detected with the slow-frame speed used. Recommendations for better results include locating the aircraft directly overhead at the time of burst and using a camera having greater frame speed and provided with timing marks.« less

Operation GREENHOUSE. Scientific Director’s Report of Atomic Weapon Tests at Eniwetok, 1951. Annex 1.3. Thermal Radiation Measurements. Part 1. Atmospheric Transmission. Part 2. Total Thermal Radiation. Part 3. Radiant Power as a Function of Time--Photoelectric Measurements. Appendix A and Appendix B

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-09-01

derived in the article by Stewart and Curcio. 1 In this expression, e is the angular diameter (in radians) of the field of view of the detecting...t dt = Ftdt (1) where t is the angular deflection of the galvanometer at time t; Ft is the radiant thermal en- ergy, in watts/cm’, incident n the...tits igl~ *ING ma Z.9 .Io - OEaM, * ’Uv I 82* 16. 6 O~vS v 4.vS I 0.0 vst , SO- L900 6 IS* los - low tows S~ wows; V. ) S .14t; .6;slows -~ ’.3 ’.3