The Manhattan and Elsie Projects 103 



to keep a constant check to detect any possible radiation hazards. The uranium 

 isotopes had to be handled very carefully, and there was only one incident that I 

 recall where we had some of this stuff get loose. Then the function of the Los 

 Alamos people was to clean up the mess to get rid of it, and they knew how to do 

 it. 



The one radiation spill was caused by a Los Alamos man who picked up the 

 device that he had dropped. It had fractured and was emitting radiation when 

 he got some on his hands. He had to go through a special cleansing process to 

 get it off. I think it was U-239 that was involved. It's hard to deal with and is a 

 very insidious type of material. If you let it loose in the middle of a table, it will 

 spread across the table and down the legs, across the floor, and up to the ceiling. 

 You have to stop and clean it up. There's a way to do that. Actually, we kept 

 buckets of axle grease around and anybody suspecting a leak was to jam the 

 material down in the grease, and the grease would hold it. 



When we were getting ready for tests, we'd close up the area. We would 

 actually condition the devices — temperature-condition them — and we'd have to 

 get them up to the battery in a hurry. When we went up the road, we went pretty 

 fast. I had a marine chase me all the way from the Butler hut to the test site one 

 day, and he accused me of going 60 miles an hour. I told him it was faster than 

 that. It was 65. It was as fast as the jeep would go. He said, "Well, I'm going to 

 take you in." I said, "You're going to go right over there and go in that building 

 and stand there and not make another peep." Of course I got away with it 

 because the regulations said when tests were underway, the person in charge 

 had absolute authority to do whatever he considered necessary, and speed was 

 necessary. 



Did the marines have Q-clearances? 



The marines were not cleared. They could only stand outside the building 

 with their guns. We had alert tests to see how quickly they could get there from 

 the barracks, and they really got there fast. Generally, it would not be more than 

 a minute from the time the alarm was tripped until they had guards all around 

 the building. 



Unless you had a special clearance, you were not even supposed to come 

 inside the gate in front of the building. We had Captains here, Officers in 

 Charge, who didn't have the clearance to come into the building, and there 

 were other significant people who could not come into the building. One was 

 the Fire Chief. He actually came to the door and knocked one day and said, "I'm 

 coming into *he building." We asked, "What are you coming into the building 

 for?" He said, ' J've got to inspect it." We said, "Chief, you can't inspect the 

 building." He replied, "I'm the Fire Chief. I've got to know what's going on in 

 here if this place catches on fire." He was told that if it caught on fire to watch it 



