5. “no preexisting contamination”: Minutes, First General Meeting, the 57 Project, January 18, 1957, at Sandia Corporation, Red. Sym 5112-(127), declassified 8/9/83.
6. “a safety test”: Memo dated April 2, 1957, LAV-57-33 Atomic Energy Commission, Las Vegas Branch, Office of the Branch Chief; also see Safety Experiments, November 1955-March 1958, Defense Nuclear Agency, United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests, Nuclear Test Personnel Review, Report Number DNA 6030.
7. dispute was over eight dead cows: The University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Knoxville, November 30, 1953, #404942, Stewart Brothers, Las Vegas, Nevada. Through courtesy of Joe Sanders of AEC, 1– 5.
8. The commission had paid the Stewarts: Memo to Dr. W. S. Johnson, Section Leader, Test Operations Section, University of California, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, October 20, 1953, #4049641.
9. aerial inspection of Groom Lake: Col. E. A. Blue, DMA/AEC; J. D. Shreve Jr., SC, W. Allaire (ALO), M. Cowan (SC) all inspected the area from the air on a special flight prior to January 18.
10. “60 to 80 cattle who hadn’t gotten the word”: Minutes, First General Meeting, the 57 Project, January 18, 1957, at Sandia Corporation, Red. Sym 5112-(127), 3.
11. excluded from official Nevada Test Site maps: Ref. Sym 5112(127) Appendix A, Administrative Committee Report, J. D. Shreve Jr., Sandia Corporation (seven pages, no date). “It remains undecided whether Area 13 is considered on-site or off-site so far as NTS is concerned… This is very important to rule on soon.” Ultimately, it was decided to exclude Area 13 from all maps and it remains this way on declassified maps today because Area 13 lies inside Area 51. Denoting it on a map would lead to questions that the Atomic Energy Commission does not want asked.
12. nuclear warhead was flown: Ibid., 6. “It will be requested that weapon be flown to Yucca Lake air strip March 15, transferred to Building 11 for storage awaiting ready date for the shot. Checkout would be done in Building 10 and the unit moved from there to Area 13
(requested designation for site) for firing.”
13. Richard Mingus was tired: Interviews with Richard Mingus. 14. America’s first dirty bomb: Operation Plumbbob, Summary
Report, Test Group 57, Nevada Test Site, Extracted Version, MayOctober 1957, ITR-1515 (Extracted Version), 85 pages.
15. Pacific Proving Ground: General information comes from Buck, History of the Atomic Energy Commission; O’Keefe, Nuclear Hostages; Fehner and Gosling, Battlefield of the Cold War.
16. made its zigzag course: Fehner and Gosling, Origins of the Nevada Test Site, 39.
17. arguing for an atomic bombing range: Ibid., 46–47.
18. Armed Forces Special Weapons Project: “History of the Air Force Special Weapons Center 1 January-30 June 1957.” Department of Defense, DNA 1. 950210.019, declassified with deletions 2/2/95.
19. code-named Project Nutmeg: Bugher, Review of Project Nutmeg, #404131.
20. “The optimum conditions”: Fehner and Gosling, Battlefield of the Cold War, 37.
21. the goal of fostering competition: Interview with Dr. Bud Wheelon; also see Nevada Test Organization, Background Information on Nevada Nuclear Tests, Office of Test Information, July 15, 1957, #403243, 25.
22. most ambitious series: Plumbbob Series 1957, Technical Report, Defense Nuclear Agency 6005F, DARE Tracking 48584, 6075.
23. Delta, nothing more: Interview with Richard Mingus.
24. scientists really had no clear idea: Safety Experiments, November 1955-March 1958, Defense Nuclear Agency, United
States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests, Nuclear Test Personnel Review, Report Number DNA 6030.
25. Workers set up: Ref. Sym 5112-(127) Appendix B, Particle Physics Committee Report, M. Cowan, Sandia Corporation Presiding (nine pages, no date). This document refers to various objectives of the particle physics program, an “experimental approach” to fallout collection, “balloon born precipitators,” air samplers on the ground, collection of fallout trays. It described how “some small plywood shacks with open windows and doors will be constructed in the fallout array. Air and surface contamination levels will be measured within the structures and compared to readings on the outside.”
26. “stocked with radiation equipment and protective clothing”: Plumbbob Series 1957, Technical Report, Defense Nuclear Agency 6005F, DARE Tracking 48584, 60–75, 316.
27. Mother Nature’s emissary: Interviews with Richard Mingus and Al O’Donnell, who introduced me to Mueller’s widow.
28. Project 57 balloons broke loose: Telex TWX 01A 2008242, From Reeves Attention Gen AD Starbird, 1957 Apr 20 AM 3:39; also see “Feasibility of Weapon Delivery By Free Balloons,” OSTI ID: 10150708; Legacy ID: DE98056381, 34 pages.
29. hand-fired by an employee from EG&G: Operation Plumbbob, Summary Report, Test Group 57, Nevada Test Site, Extracted Version, May-October 1957, ITR-1515 (EX). Sandia Corporation, Albuquerque, NM, October 10, 1958. “At 0350 PST. April 24, a surface charge of 110 pounds of stick dynamite was fired 1,000 feet east of Zone C (as position 42–61) to verify predictions of cloud height. Timing and firing circuits were the ultimate in simplicity; the weapon was hand fired by EG&G at the Test Group Director’s instruction.”
30. fallout was to the north: Ibid., 55 (6.1., Weather Observations). The weather was meticulously recorded, which is ironic given how “fast and loose” everything else was running out at the test site, as stated by an EG&G employee who also worked as a liaison to the Pentagon.
“April 10, 1957. Hodographs during the period 2100 to 2330 PST showed that satisfactory conditions existed at 2100 PST, but a recommendation for cancellation was made after the wind shifted to northwest on the 2300 PST soundings. April 1F, [sic] 1957. Satisfactory wind conditions existed at 0441 PST, but the morning inversion broke more quickly than expected. By 0530 PST, winds were too strong and the shear had disappeared, forcing cancellation. April 20, 1957, Intermittent light showers began at 2330 PST on the 19th and continued through the remainder of the night and following morning. Hodographs indicated that satisfactory winds existed during this period, but moisture on the instrumentation forced cancellation. April 24, 1957. Scattered middle clouds were observed and a moderate dew formed during the night. The sequence of wind changes from 0415 to 0756 is shown by the hodographs. The shot was fired at 0627 PST.”
31. The bomb was indeed dirty: In June of 1982, Sandia Corporation produced an extracted 102-page report on the results of its dirty bomb or plutonium-contamination effects study on Project 57 for the director of the Defense Nuclear Agency, in lieu of a proposed cleanup of Area 13 (see chapter 18). Information in this chapter comes from portions of that extracted study. The stated objectives of the project “were to estimate the immediate and long-term distribution of plutonium and gain an understanding of how this distribution comes about, to conduct a biomedical evaluation of plutonium-laden environments, to investigate relevant methods of decontamination, and to evaluate alpha field survey instruments and monitoring procedures.” And yet Area 13 soil decontamination was not even considered for twenty-five years.
32. “extract” of the original report: The full, still-classified document, originally prepared by Sandia Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October of 1958, is called ITR-1515.
33. “the alpha half-life of plutonium-239”: Ibid., 17 (“Motivation and Mission, 1.1 Historical Resume”). The text reads: “once in the stomach, their stay in the body is short, for they are excreted as an
inert material with virtually no body assimilation. Inhalation is a different mechanism entirely and one which presents a considerable threat. Any particle small enough to reach the lower respiratory tract apparently has an excellent chance of clinging to alveolar surfaces and staying to do radiation damage… One cannot outlive the influence, because the alpha half life of plutonium-239 is of the order of 20,000 years.”
34. “respirable plutonium remarkably far downwind”: Ibid., 7 (“Foreword, Abstract”).
35. “earthworms moved 18 tons of soil”: Ibid., 101 (8.6, “A New Program”). “Finally, Dr. Kermit Larson agreed to exploit an idea which grew out of discussions among participants in the anniversary measurements — earthworms. Compton’s Encyclopedia reports that the renowned Charles Darwin studied an acre of garden in which he claimed 53,000 hard-working earthworms moved 18 tons of soil. Translocation of soil, the possibility that earthworm body chemistry may vary plutonium form, etc., could turn out to be significant influences, intentional or unintentional, in the rehabilitation of a weapon-accident environment.”
