

Los Alamos Declassified - benbreen
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/gallery/2015/jan/14/los-alamos-declassified/

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mladenkovacevic
Interesting to note that 3 of the scientists working on the atomic bombs were
actually Soviet spies or in some way passing information to the Soviet nuclear
program.

Theodore Hall is particular is interesting because he did it believing that a
single country having a monopoly on nuclear energy would result in another
Nazi-like menace being unleashed on the world. Quite a mature and far-sighted
opinion for someone only 19 years of age.

~~~
leoh
Definitely. You will notice that when you read about Fuchs on Wikipedia, there
is no mention of his motives. Certainly he had some.

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josefdlange
If anyone is interested in the biography of the Manhattan Project in general,
including much of the goings-on at Los Alamos, I really must recommend Rhodes'
"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" ([http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Atomic-
Bomb-Anniversary/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Making-Atomic-Bomb-
Anniversary/dp/1451677618))

It's an excellent read, cover-to-cover. One of the few assigned books I read
with excitement while in undergrad.

~~~
jewbacca
If you're already familiar with Manhattan Project histories, check out
"Hitler's Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall"
([http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Uranium-Club-Secret-
Recordings...](http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Uranium-Club-Secret-
Recordings/dp/0387950893)), by physicist Jeremy Bernstein.

It's an account of the German nuclear programs, with the centrepiece being a
curated set of transcripts from secret recordings of the candid conversations
of a group of German scientists detained after the war.

Some vaguely YC-ish lessons on how their failure to produce could be
attributed in many ways to seemingly mundane organizational structures that
were debatably inherent to Nazi German society and internal politics.

Also some borderline pornographic payoff when they find out about Hiroshima.
At the time, they were convinced they were 10 years ahead of anyone else, and
were being detained as a prelude to being showered with honours and put in
place to bring American and British science into the modern age. Then they set
about convincing themselves they failed on purpose for moral reasons.

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thomasahle
Feynman looks like a smug teenager in
[http://assets.nybooks.com/media/img/slideshows/8611940694_88...](http://assets.nybooks.com/media/img/slideshows/8611940694_88808f20dc_k.jpg)
I guess it makes sense, I just imagined him older in my head.

~~~
mcguire
Well, to be truthful, judging by what I've read, he was a bit of a smug
teenager. All his life.

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rcarrigan87
I work for a home health company that specifically cares for sick employees of
the nuclear era. People who worked at sites like Los Alamos, Oak Ridge,
Savannah River Site, Hanford and elsewhere. Some of their stories are really
incredible - particularly the level of secrecy.

Sadly, many ended up getting sick due to the dangerous work environment. I've
seen pictures of guys holding uranium rods with barely any protection.

Many wont speak or seek help because the secret nature of the sites is so
engrained into their psyche.

~~~
batbomb
> Sadly, many ended up getting sick due to the dangerous work environment.
> I've seen pictures of guys holding uranium rods with barely any protection.

This is often safe, actually, but that's not always the case. How safe can
depend on a few factors, such as enrichment, purity, presence of neutron
moderator (graphite, water, beryllium, etc...)

I've been within several feet of low-enrichment uranium rods before without
any specific protection equipment (i.e. water) at one of the reactors I've
visited.

Spent rods are definitely dangerous though.

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brianolson
I grew up in Los Alamos in the 1980s and 1990s and the detailed history of
what happened on the receiving end in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still mostly
glossed over. The story told is more about the heroic wartime feat of
engineering that was the Manhattan Project. Even now that gets played up more.
Since I left they installed a statue of Gen. Groves and Dr. Oppenheimer in one
of the parks there.

~~~
matthewmcg
John Hershey's _Hiroshima_ is a good retelling of the horrors of the Little
Boy experiment, if you are interested.

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mikepurvis
I highly recommend the book 109 East Palace, by Jennet Conant. It's a great
look into the day-to-day life of the people working on the project, and some
of the logistical challenges which were faced as everything scaled up.

~~~
mcguire
Here's the obligatory reference to Feynman's biographies.

