On August 25, the National Park Service celebrated its 98th birthday. We wish "America's Best Idea" a very happy birthday, and hope that we will be celebrating the addition of a Manhattan Project National Historical Park before the National Park System turns 99.

On August 14, Denise Ryan, Director of Public Lands Policy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, published an excellent op-ed in the Huffington Post on Why We Should Preserve the History of the Manhattan Project. Ryan explains, "As a nation, we need to grapple openly and objectively with the Manhattan Project's complex legacy. To do so, a place for reflection, education and interpretation is needed... Opening up and preserving these sites as a national park would provide an opportunity for Americans to consider the Manhattan Project in its full scope and complexity."

Ryan goes on, "Few events have affected as many aspects of American life as deeply as the Manhattan Project. It irrevocably altered the global standing of the United States and set the stage for the Cold War. It sparked innovations in medicine, science, and technology. And, of course, the deadly force of the atomic bomb humbled us all. A new national park, managed by the Department of Energy and the National Park Service, would encourage visitors to consider the Manhattan Project's many ethical, cultural and scientific implications." 

The B Reactor at Hanford

Ryan concludes, "We did more than split the atom at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and Hanford. We stepped forward into a new era, one in which science granted us extraordinary power to improve our world -- or to destroy it. The novelist Herman Wouk, whose best-known works were inspired by his service in World War II, noted that 'the beginning of the end of war lies in remembrance.' The beginning of wisdom lies there too."

We wholeheartedly agree and encourage you to join the National Trust for Historic Preservation in urging Congress to pass the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act this year. Please click here to send an email to ask your Senators to preserve this history for future generations.

In 1944, General Leslie Groves commissioned a history of the Manhattan Project. The Department of Energy has just released the 36-volume, declassified history. There are many interesting stories in the texts, from the science to counterespionage programs. Science blog io9 did a story on the "Manhattan District History," focusing on the security leaks investigated during the project. "Since September 1943, investigations were conducted of more than 1,500 'loose talk' or leakage of information cases and corrective action was taken in more than 1,200 violations of procedures for handling classified material.... Complete security of information could be achieved only by following all leaks to their source."

Some of the leaks were among family members. A young secretary at Oak Ridge wrote her uncle that the war would soon be over when "the product" was finished. She forgot the letter on a bus, where it was discovered and she was fired.

A billet of uranium

A religious pamphlet, "Startling Power," led to several inquiries. The pamphlet read, "Uranium 235, extracted from natural uranium ore, promises to make all of our power sources mere child's toys by comparison...[But] we must not overlook the far more vital and assured fact that God has given to Christians the gift of the Holy Spirit with energies far more dynamic than those of exploding atoms or mysterious elements." An engineer and a pastor both got in trouble for asking for more information about U-235 after reading the pamphlet.

Despite the "What you see here, let it stay here" billboards extolling secrecy at Hanford, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge, clearly some workers were anxious to give family and friends an idea of what they were doing. Others were simply careless such as a contractor on the project in New York who left a classified file at the train station. 

Fortunately, most of the small slips were innocuous. But the real spies, including Klaus Fuchs, David Greenglass, and Ted Hall, went unsuspected. In Hall's case, the truth about his work as a spy for the Soviet Union was only revealed more than fifty years later. One of the great ironies of the secrecy and intelligence programs of the Manhattan Project is that while 1,500 small fry were caught, the big fish got away.

 

We have been enjoying the WGN American show "Manhattan," which aired its fifth episode last Sunday. The show has done an excellent job conveying the tension that infused the wartime project with its scientific rivalries, espionage and counterintelligence operations, and challenges of life in the secret city. 

The two groups charged with designing a plutonium-based bomb clash over their theories and who gets access to the micrograms of plutonium available. The group under Reed Akley, including the brilliant young Charlie Isaacs, are working on a fairly straightforward "Thin Man" gun-type method.  Frank Winter is desperately leading his team, including white-bearded Glen Babbit, to create a much more complicated implosion-type bomb. 

The ever present military police and frequent interrogations of suspected spies has damaged both groups. Wives are upset with their stressed out, secretive husbands and the lack of professional opportunities for them at Los Alamos. Dark pasts are coming back to haunt some of the scientists and further complicate their lives. The show has certainly been dramatic so far! For more information, check out our reviews of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5.

We live-tweet each episode, highlighting the real stories behind the show's fictional premise. Follow us on Twitter at 10 PM EDT each week! 

Harold Agnew was a veteran of the Manhattan Project, an observer to the bombing of Hiroshima, and served as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1970-1979. Agnew discusses the science behind the hydrogen bomb, along with production and research conducted under the Atomic Energy Commission (later the DOE) and the Air Force. He describes the Soviet program and the espionage involved, his clash with the government and military when trying to receive funds for laboratory research, and innovations that resulted from the nuclear program.

Ray Generaux was design project manager for the chemical separation facilities at Hanford. He was responsible for designing the massive buildings and innovative machinery that separated the plutonium from the irradiated uranium fuel elements after they were taken from the reactors. Using a television camera mounted on a crane, Generaux enabled operators to see fifty feet below where they manipulated the highly radioactive fuel. It was the first industrial application of television.

Robert E. Hayes worked as an airplane mechanic on Kwajalein Island, maintaining Boeing B-29s. He talks about life in the Pacific during World War II, being trained to use a flamethrower on Iwo Jima, maintaining complicated airplane engines, and witnessing the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests.

Vera Kistiakowsky is an American physicist and the daughter of physical chemist George Kistiakowsky, who directed the Explosives Division at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. Vera visited her father at Los Alamos during the summer months in 1944 and 1945. In her interview, she discusses the freedom she felt in the secret city and fun she had horseback riding with her father. After the war, Vera finished college and earned her Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry under Glenn Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley. She joined the MIT faculty in 1963 and has been an advocate for the advancement of women in science. 

John Manley was one of Oppenheimer's principal assistants at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. Manley helped Oppenheimer manage the Los Alamos laboratory. After surveying the landscape around the Trinity Test site before the test, he witnessed the explosion from inside a wooden bunker. In this interview, he recalls the Trinity detonation, as well as working with men like Leo Szilard and General Leslie Groves.

Glenn Seaborg, winner of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and co-discoverer of plutonium, was in charge of the separation process for removing plutonium from irradiated uranium slugs at the University of Chicago during the Manhattan Project. In his interview, he discusses the pressure to obtain high yields of plutonium and how he decided on the bismuth phosphate process which turned out to be very successful. Seaborg also describes the difficulty of recruiting leading scientists without being allowed to explain the work until they agreed to join.