Part 9 (1/2)

30.

DISPATCH FROM GROUND ZERO.

The sampler pilots returned to Nevada in the spring of 1953 along with thousands of ground troops for one of the longest and dirtiest test series yet. Eleven atomic bombs were detonated during Operation Upshot-Knothole. Seven were dropped from towers, three from airplanes, and one was fired from a cannon. With so many detonations, the military leaders had ample opportunity to try out the new aofficer volunteera program, a project in which officers witnessed the blasts at close range. Itas not known how many officer volunteers partic.i.p.ated or whether they suffered any long-term effects. President Clintonas Advisory Committee estimated that fewer than 100 people were involved.1 One of the partic.i.p.ants was Robert Hinners, a young Navy captain, who hunkered down with seven other officer volunteers in a trench 2,000 yards, or a little over a mile, from Ground Zero when Shot Simon was exploded on April 25, 1953. Simon had an aofficial yielda of forty-three kilotons, but Hinners estimated the yield to be fifty to fifty-five kilotons. Other records support his numbers.

The military allowed the eight officer volunteers to observe the explosion 2,000 yards closer to Ground Zero than the Army had concluded was a safe distance for bombs in the thirty-five- to forty-kiloton range. Hinners estimated that he and his fellow officers received 13.6 roentgens of radiation, but a memo decla.s.sified in 1995 stated the officers probably received a24 rem initial gamma plus neutron radiation.a2 (Neutrons are at least ten times more effective at causing biological damage than gamma radiation.) Hinners prepared a report on his experience for the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, which provides an extraordinary firsthand account of the light, the radiation, and the dust from an atomic detonation witnessed at close range. The following are some excerpts from his account: 3. Prior to final acceptance as a member of the group, each officer was required to personally and individually compute the effects to be expected in an open trench on the basis of the expected yield of 35 to 40 KT, and to recommend a distance for positioning the group which would not exceed the effects criteria which had been established for this exercise.3 Each officer also was required to execute a certificate confirming his volunteer status.a In submitting my own forms, I recommended a distance of 2,000 yards.

4. General Bullock reviewed the computations at a briefing conference held in his office on the day before the shot. Since there was substantial agreement between all of the officers of the group as to the 2,000 yard distance, this distance was approved by the General.a Trenches previously had been prepared at 500-yard intervals, so that the final decision could be made with some flexibility on the basis of the weather conditions and any other lastminute considerations having any bearing on the predicted effects. At the final briefing, General Bullock also informed us that although there had been a rather complete press release on the volunteer program following the first Desert Rock V exercise, more recent security restrictions precluded public release of the exact distance at which we would be positioned relative to Ground Zero or of any of the other details of our position and observations.a 8. On the morning of the shot, we rode to the forward area on one of the buses of the regular troop observer convoy. The Army psychologists accompanied us as far as the main troop positions at the 4,000-yard point. Our group continued on alone by truck to the general vicinity of the 2,000-yard position, arriving there about one hour before shot time.a We remained above ground until about 15 minutes before shot time, at which time we entered our trenches. There were two trenches in line, each about 20 feet long, 3 feet wide and 6 feet deep, with their adjacent ends separated by about five yards of unexcavated earth. One was reinforced with a solid wood lining on the front and rear faces and cross-braced with wood timbers at about 4-foot intervals. The other one was unrevvetted. Each trench had a row of sandbags placed flat on the ground around its top perimeter, and had a loose fill sloped to about a 45 degree angle at each end to facilitate climbing in and out. We were permitted to choose our respective positions. I chose the unrevvetted trench, along with two other officers of the group. Both trenches were bare of any equipment except for several shovels.a 10. The following is a summary of the various effects as we observed them at 2,000 yards from Ground Zero, in the positions described: a. Lighta”The intense white light was the first manifestation of the explosion, and seemed to persist for at least six seconds, as it continued well beyond the time of arrival of the shock wave. I was wearing Navy safety goggles with clear gla.s.s lenses, as I was carrying a high-range experimental type of radiation survey meter and had hoped to get an early reading of the prompt nuclear radiation by opening my eyes very slightly. This proved to be impossible; I not only could not see the meter scale or pointer, but could not even see the profile of the instrument, the bottom of the trench, nor any other surrounding objects. There was nothing but white light on all sides. However, I had no sensation that it was hurting my eyes; it merely blanked out all vision for the duration of the fireball. When the fireball finally cooled off and the light gradually diminished, I had no sensation of any momentary flash-blindness; so far as I could tell, my eyes adapted to the rather dim early morning light (which was further reduced by the heavy dust cloud) as fast as the fireball disappeared.

b. Earth shocka”This was the second manifestation of the explosion to be felt at our position, and in our case never exceeded a rather slight trembling motion. I was squatting on the b.a.l.l.s of my feet with one shoulder braced lightly against the forward wall of the trench. In spite of this rather unstable position, at no time did I lose my balance due to ground motion, nor did I feel any appreciable ground shock against my shoulder.a c. Heata”There was no sensation of heat in the trench; not even on my face, which was entirely exposed except for the small area covered by the frames of my safety goggles.a d. Nuclear radiationa”The first reading which I was able to obtain on my survey meter was exactly 100 r/hr. I estimate this to have been at about 8 seconds after the detonation, as soon as the light had diminshed enough for me to regain my sight. At this time, the pointer on the instrument was moving smoothly downward. The decrease in the reading was fairly rapid at firsta”down to 50 r/hr. during the next 10 seconds or soa”but the rate of decrease then gradually slowed down so that it required about one additional minute for it to drop down to a reading of between 20 and 25 r/hr. I was calling the readings over to the group leader in the other trench and at this point he directed us to leave the trenches. I watched the meter as I climbed out, and it moved up to 40 r/hr. as I left the trench for the open ground. We stopped briefly to examine some sheep which had been tethered in a dugout, in shallow trenches, and in the open in the vicinity. As we did so, I noticed that the meter reading was gradually increasing, so that it was again up to about 50 r/hr. by the time we started walking down the road away from Ground Zero. It was then about four or five minutes after the burst. During all this time, particles of sand or other debris were continually raining down on our helmets; the sound resembled light sleeting.

11. As we walked away from Ground Zero, the survey meter reading steadily decreased, but whenever we stopped to look at something, it would gradually increase again which indicated that a substantial amount of fallout was still being deposited at those distances (between 2,000 and 2,500 yards from Ground Zero). After we had walked for about a quarter of a mile, we were met by our two evacuation trucks; by this time the instrument reading was down to about 10 r/hr. The reading continued to decrease rapidly as we moved away from Ground Zero by truck, and was down to less than 1 r/hr. by the time we reached the main body of troops at the 4,000-yard position 14. The princ.i.p.al effects visually observed above-ground after we had emerged from the trench were: a. Sheepa”Those in the vicinity were singed to a dark brown color on those portions of their bodies which had been exposed to line-of-sight thermal radiation, but they were all on their feet and showed no other evidences of physical injury.

b. Treesa”A large Joshua tree just outside our trench was partly broken off and on fire.a Other Joshua trees were burning on all sides of our position.

c. Dusta”The dust was sufficient to make the visibility very poor beyond a hundred yards or so in any direction, but was not heavy enough to be suffocating. I did not feel the need of putting on my gas mask, and did not use it.

15. A stop was made for a monitoring check at the Desert Rock station across from the control point on our way back to camp. It was found that sweeping off our clothing and shoes with a broom was sufficient to bring the reading down to an acceptable level.

16. Following our return to camp, we were given an aexit interviewa by the Army psychologists, and filled out questionnaires, Tab [illegible]. With respect to the question concerning the ability of the troops to carry on immediately after emerging from trenches under these conditions, it was the consensus of opinion that there should have been no difficulty except a reduction in efficiency for about the first five minutes due to the heavy dust cloud and resultant poor visibilitya.

31.

THE INVERTED MUSHROOM.

A young Army lieutenant shepherded his platoon into a trench 1,700 yards behind the officer volunteers on the morning that Shot Simon was being readied for detonation. The desert was blanketed in darkness. Two miles away, a small light glowed at the base of the 300-foot tower cradling the bomb. Normally the weapons were exploded about thirty minutes before sunrise.1 That way the flash from the bomb would trip the photoelectric cells that started the recording equipment and give the sampler pilots enough daylight to see the mushroom cloud.

The lieutenant, identified only as S.H., was the last man to march down the ramp into the five-foot-deep trench.2 He had been warned by his commanding officer not to look at the blast. Just twenty-two years old and two months out of officersa training school, the lieutenant found the temptation irresistible. As the loudspeaker counted down the last seconds, S.H. turned and glanced over his left shoulder. At that very moment, Simon was exploded in a fury of light and sound.

Before the young officer had time to blink, the light flooded into his eyes. His pupils, which were dilated for night vision, instantly absorbed more than fifty times the energy they would have during daylight. The flash bleached his retinas, turning the world white. Momentarily blind, S.H. staggered down into the trench to join his platoon. When his sight began to return, his men resembled white shadows. His vision remained blurred for the rest of the day, and his left eye began to swell. That evening when he tried to read, the print appeared distorted and a spot on the page seemed to move with his eyes. When he reported the problem to the camp medical officer the following day, he was whisked to a hospital in Fort Hood, Texas, immediately.

At the military hospital, he was placed on a salt-free diet and administered cortisone and atropine. The swelling in his left eye decreased markedly. But radiating tension lines soon appeared around the burn, suggesting that he might suffer a retinal detachment in the future. The lieutenant was released from the hospital about four weeks after the accident. Soon after his hospital discharge, he was separated from the service. Branded forever onto his left retina was a small blind spot. When an eye doctor from Brooklyn, New York, examined the young manas eyes two years later, he discovered something astonis.h.i.+ng: The blind spot resembled an ainverted mushroom.a Long before the inverted mushroom appeared on the young lieutenantas eye, scientists had been concerned about the flash from the atomic bomb. At Trinity, observers had been cautioned to wait a few seconds before looking at the fireball through pieces of dark welderas gla.s.s. Everyone heeded the instructions except Richard P. Feynman, the future n.o.bel laureate.3 Feynman climbed into a truck, reasoning that the winds.h.i.+eld would protect his eyes from the harmful rays. aIam probably the only guy who saw it with the human eye,a he later wrote.4 One historian said Feynman was temporarily blinded, but Feynman doesnat mention such a problem in his autobiography.

Radiation emitted by the cyclotron and other sources were also extremely damaging to the eye. Early in his tenure at the AECas Division of Biology and Medicine, s.h.i.+eld Warren was confronted with the unsettling news that cyclotron workers were developing cataracts at an alarming rate. aCalls about cyclotron eyes,a he jotted in his diary December 19, 1948. The eyes of eleven scientists were examined.56 Three had very severe cataracts, four had mild ones, and four had none. The findings prompted the AEC to begin a preliminary investigation of 1,000 people in Hiros.h.i.+ma who were believed to have been within 3,000 feet of the hypocenter. Forty acertaina cases of radiation cataracts and an additional forty asuspecteda cases were found.7 Military leaders had grave concerns about the effects of the atomic flash on soldiers and airmen. How could soldiers fight wars if the enemyas A-bombs blinded them? How could pilots fly? aShould the central vision of a soldier or airman be temporarily disabled and the visual acuity reduced below 20/400, he becomes useless as a fighting man and easy prey to the enemy and potentially a danger to his own forces,a a doc.u.ment decla.s.sified by Los Alamos in 1995 states.8 Like all light, the energy from an atomic flash pa.s.ses through the lens of the eye, where it is projected in an upside-down image on the retina, a layer of tissue at the back of the eyeball. The retina, which acts much like a piece of film, contains the rods and cones that turn light into an electrical impulse that is then carried to the brain by the optic nerve. Because of the focusing ability of the eye, retinal burns occurred at far greater distances from Ground Zero than skin burns. William Jay Brady, the scientist who worked at the Nevada Test Site for many years, said he was injured twice by the flash from atom bombs. His eyes felt like they had sand in them for the first two weeks or so. Then afloatersa or black spots, appeared in his vision, which remain to this day.

The aflashblindnessa experiments began almost simultaneously with the first atomic maneuvers in the fall of 1951 and were conducted through at least 1962. They continued even after the military officers and their scientific colleagues knew with certainty that the flash from the atomic bomb could cause permanent eye damage and even blindness.9 The Air Force School of Aviation Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, today known as the School of Aeros.p.a.ce Medicine, was the lead investigator in the early experiments. Scientists at the school were particularly interested in the effects of flashblindness because one of its most renowned scientists, Hubertus aStrugia Strughold, had suffered a retinal burn during an eclipse. aThatas the thing that gave us curiosity,a recalled retired Air Force Colonel John Pickering, who joined the school in the 1940s and subsequently became director of medical research.10 As it happens, Strughold was a German scientist who had directed the Third Reichas Aeromedical Research Inst.i.tute in Berlin during World War II. He was brought to the School of Aviation Medicine in 1947 under the auspices of a controversial project that became known as Operation Paperclip. Hundreds of German scientists were imported into the United States, courtesy of Operation Paperclip and its related programs, to work on scientific and industrial projects. Many of the foreign scientists, including Strughold, were alleged to have had connections with the n.a.z.i Party. Some were accused of partic.i.p.ating in the human experiments conducted in the concentration camps. Strughold, who died in 1986 in San Antonio, repeatedly denied that he had any connection to the n.a.z.i Party or the concentration camp experiments. But a 1947 intelligence a.s.sessment report on Strughold observed, aHis successful career under Hitler would seem to indicate that he must be in full accord with n.a.z.ism.a11 Scientific reports and personnel records on file at the National Archives show that at least three Paperclip scientistsa”Heinrich Rose, Paul A. Cibis, and Konrad Buettnera”were involved in flashblindness research at the School of Aviation Medicine.

Heinrich Rose, a diminutive scientist with blond hair and blue eyes, worked for Strughold when he was in the Luftwaffe from 1939 to 1945. He was an expert in visual acuity, night vision, and depth perception, all problems of vital concern to the U.S. Air Force.12 According to intelligence reports, Rose was a member of the n.a.z.i Storm Troopers from 1933 to 1935 and achieved the rank of Sanitatsoberscharfuhrer, or asanitary red cross corporal.a13 A den.a.z.ification court in Heidelberg, Germany, cla.s.sified him as a afollowera after the war and fined him 500 Reichmarks.

But in an affidavit for an immigrant visa, Rose stated that he had been urged to join the Storm Troopers by the local party leader in Berlin who was also his supervisor at the hospital where he was doing an interns.h.i.+p. aWhile a member of the SA [Storm Troopers], I did not partic.i.p.ate in any other activities than in those of a medical nature,a he wrote.14 According to a security report prepared by U.S. Office of the Military Government, Rose was a member of the n.a.z.i Party from 1937 to 1945. But Rose said in an affidavit he was not a party member, and no records were found indicating party members.h.i.+p.1516 The Air Force awarded Rose the Exceptional Service Award, its highest civilian honor, ten years after his arrival in the United States for his studies on visual aids in aircraft landings, depth perception, night-vision training for pilots, and flash-blindness arising from atomic bomb explosions.17 Paul Cibis, whose last name also appears as aZibisa on some military records, was brought to the United States some time after 1949. Cibis was aespecially qualified in the field of time relations.h.i.+ps and vision,a wrote Walter Agee, a brigadier general working in the Air Forceas Directorate of Intelligence.18 aHis services are also desired in connection with studies in relation to the recognition and identification of aircraft flying at supersonic speeds. Dr. Zibis is further qualified in studies on the adaptation to darkness and has recently published a paper of fundamental importance in this field.a Konrad Buettner, a slender, serious-looking scientist with a ruddy complexion and brown hair, arrived in the United States in June 1947. His records state that he was a member of the n.a.z.i Storm Troopers from 1934 to 1938, the n.a.z.i Party from 1933 to 1939, and a major in the Luftwaffe from 1939 to 1945. At the height of the war, he was involved in experiments studying the pressure changes on pilots pulling in and out of dives and the aclimatizationa of airplane cabins and c.o.c.kpits.19 Buettner, who eventually moved on to the University of Was.h.i.+ngton in Seattle, said he joined the Storm Troopers and the n.a.z.i Party aunder pressurea from party organizations.20 He said he was expelled from the Storm Troopers and resigned from the n.a.z.i Party. aWhen invited to reenter the party during the war, I declined,a he stated in an affidavit for an immigrant visa.

One of Buettneras colleagues described him as a dedicated scientist who cared little for amaterial advantages.a21 But another remembered his avery elegant dwellinga and how he apaid all the expenses for social festivities among his circle of friends.a22 A security report states that Buettner was not in asympathy with n.a.z.ism but of necessity maintained a discreet silence.a23 From 1931 to 1947 Buettner, a meteorologist, conducted experiments at the University of Kiel on the effects of heat, cold, and moisture on human beings. According to Buettneras personnel records, his research included aExperiments with human beings in Arctic (Norway), subtropic (Sahara), and tropic (Bel. Congo), climate, climatic chambers and in aircraft.24 Erythema and solar-ultraviolet aerosol and static electricity (dust, fog, and salt crystals.)a Buettner was a.s.signed to two projects when he arrived at the School of Aviation Medicine. One involved the development of clothing and goggles to protect against intense heat. The second was the acorrelation of skin temperature with pain threshold of skin.a25 Part of the second project involved determining how aWhite and Colored Human Skina would react to the atomic flash. For his experimental subjects, he used pigs because their skin behaves like human skin.

Focusing an intense beam of light on the black skin of young anesthetized pigs, Buettner observed that ablisters began to rise after 2.2 seconds, and they exploded with a light popping noise after 4 seconds.a When the beam of light was aimed at the white skin on the same pig, Buettner found no signs of blistering even after ten seconds. aIts significance in civil defense,a he said of the finding, ais obvious when one considers the close microscopic similarity of black pig and heavily pigmented human skin.a26 The first flashblindness experiment took place during the 1951 Buster-Jangle series. Approximately twenty-five volunteers watched the blast from a C-54 aircraft nine miles from Ground Zero.27 Some subjects wore goggles; others were given no eye protection. The initial study concluded that air crews who witnessed atomic detonations during daylight did not suffer any aserious visual handicap.a During the 1952 Tumbler-Snapper test series, the armed forces wanted to conduct flashblindness experiments at night in order to adetermine accurately what temporary or permanent effect the flash of an atomic explosion has on the human eye.a2829 The AEC, which had demanded a written release from the military during the first experiment, had reservations about the second but eventually agreed to the militaryas demands.30 A light-tight trailer was constructed and hauled to a location ten miles from Ground Zero.31 With twelve portholes punched into one side, the trailer bore a crazy resemblance to an oceangoing vessel that somehow had washed up on the Nevada desert. Inside the trailer, twelve stools on runners were positioned in front of the portholes. Directly behind the stools were visual charts, aircraft instruments, and other devices designed to measure the visual acuity of the test subjects after they witnessed the flash.

The portholes were fitted with shutters that exposed the left eye of each subject to the detonation. Half the subjects wore protective goggles while the other half did not. aThe shutters remained open 2 seconds which allowed maximum bleaching of the retina and then the shutters closed.a32 The experimental subjects then turned on their stools and attempted to operate the aircraft instruments.

The experiment was aborted after two shots when two men developed retinal burns. Air Force Colonel Victor Byrnes stated in a formerly cla.s.sified report that both men had acompletely recovered.a34 But a scientific paper published three years later suggests that wasnat the case.33 That article disclosed that five of six people who suffered eye injuries from watching atomic blasts had developed a permanent blind spot or scar tissue. aConsequently, we a.s.sume that in these areas visual function is permanently destroyed,a the authors wrote.35 The injuries should have discouraged further experimentation, but the School of Aviation Medicine forged ahead with even more elaborate preparations for the 1953 Upshot-Knothole tests, the series during which S.H.as eye was imprinted with the upside-down mushroom. Before the test series began, Heinrich Rose and Konrad Buettner calculated that at night the flash from a twenty-kiloton bomb could produce retinal burns forty miles away. aDue to the concentration of the energy in the image formed on the retina, skin burns and retinal burns follow different laws,a they wrote.36 The light-tight trailer was again used for the experiments. But instead of remaining stationary, it was moved from distances ranging from seven to fourteen miles from Ground Zero. Once again the shutters opened briefly to expose the subjectsa left eyes. But this time the partic.i.p.ants viewed the detonations through a double filter that reduced the light transmitted to the retina by 75 percent. Only one person, an officer with darkly pigmented eyes and the initials C.B., sustained a aslight retinala burn.37 The injury occurred during aClimax,a the largest shot in the Upshot-Knothole series and the largest nuclear weapon detonated in Nevada up to that date. The trailer was seven miles from Ground Zero at the time of the May 31 explosiona”the shortest of the distances at which the trailer was deployed.

The School of Aviation Medicineas John Pickering said he volunteered for one of the experiments and signed a consent form before the study began. aWhen the time came for ophthalmologists to describe what they thought could or could not happen, and we were asked to sign a consent form, just as you do now in the hospital for surgery, I signed one.38 Iam d.a.m.ned sure everybody in that trailer signed one.a At the same time the human experiments were being conducted in the trailer, the School of Aviation Medicine was also coordinating a ma.s.sive flashblindness experiment with rabbits. About 700 rabbits were trucked to the test site and placed in boxes at two, three, five, eight, ten, eighteen, twenty-seven, and forty-two miles from Ground Zero.39 The rabbitsa heads were fixed through openings in the boxes so that they could not look away from the fireball. Moments before the bomb was detonated, alarm clocks woke the animals from their slumber. With their long ears twitching lazily, the rabbits were gazing toward Ground Zero when the searing white light flooded into their eyes.

When scientists decapitated the rabbits and removed the eyes, they made some shocking discoveries: The light was delivered so rapidly that tiny explosions occurred on the surface of the animalsa retinas.40 The fluids in the eyes of the animals closest to Ground Zero began boiling and turned to steam.41 The flash had burned deep holes into the eyes of the animals stationed at eight miles or closer to Ground Zero, and retinal burns resembling a ayellowish white plaquea appeared at greater distances.42 In all, more than 75 percent of the rabbits sustained retinal burns, with some burns detected in animals as far as forty-two miles from the blast. Heinrich Rose, Paul Cibis, and two military officers cautioned, aOne must consider the possibility of an atomic flash burn occurring directly on the optic nerve head.43 This would, if of sufficient size, result in complete blindness of the affected eye.a The flash from the hydrogen bomb was even more dangerous. Following Shot Bravo, which was detonated in 1954 at the Pacific Proving Ground, the deputy commandant of the School of Aviation Medicine sent an urgent message to the Atomic Energy Commission. aIt can be a.s.sumed that all persons who viewed the actual fireball without eye protection have received permanent chorio-retinal damage,a wrote Colonel John McGraw.44 McGraw also disclosed that air crews flying at high alt.i.tudes within 1,000 miles of the detonation could have received retinal burns and urged that people who were within 100 miles of Ground Zero be examined by competent eye doctors. aIt must be emphasized,a he concluded, athat an immediate examination is of utmost importance. Such early data would greatly add to our present knowledge of this economically important eye injury in the human.a The injuries from the flashblindness experiments caught the attention in 1954 of Colonel Irving Branch, an official at the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project headquarters in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. In a letter to the a.s.sistant Secretary of Defense, Branch noted that in two instances volunteers were injured. aBecause of the implications involved due to these injuries, it is felt that a definite need exists for guidance in the use of human volunteers as experimental subjects,a he wrote.45 Attached to Branchas memorandum was an unsigned note that began: In Nov. 53, it was learned that there existed a T/S [top secret] doc.u.ment signed by the Secretary of Defense which listed various requirements and criteria which had to be met by individuals contemplating the use of human volunteers in Bio-medical or other types of experimentation.46 Since this information was of particular importance to this office in cla.s.sifying and/or releasing information on the Flash Blindness programs at weapons tests, attempts were made to learn the nature of these requirements.a It was learned that although this doc.u.ment details very definite and specific steps which must be taken before volunteers may be used in experimentation, no serious attempt has been made to disseminate the information to those experimenters who had a definite need-to-know. The lowest level at which it had been circulated was that of the three Secretaries of the Services.a Incredibly, the doc.u.ment that was being so closely guarded was a version of the Nuremberg Code, the principles guiding ethical human experimentation that had been handed down by the U.S. judges presiding over the trial of the n.a.z.i doctors. Defense Secretary Charles Wilson had signed a memorandum embracing the principles on February 26, 1953. The provisions contained in the Wilson memorandum were circulated in uncla.s.sified Army doc.u.ments beginning in 1954, but the Wilson memorandum itself was not decla.s.sified until 1975.

Although records are sketchy, the flashblindness experiments apparently stopped for four years and then were resumed by other military groups during Operation Plumbbob, a 1957 test series conducted in Nevada, and Dominic I, a test series conducted in 1962 in the Pacific.474849 At least sixteen human subjects appeared to have been used in the Plumbbob experiment and three in the Dominic study. Official reports do not say whether any injuries occurred. Rabbit experiments also continued during the high-alt.i.tude nuclear shots detonated in the Pacific Ocean. John Pickering said that rabbits on barges 325 miles from Ground Zero got retinal burns from the flash.50

32.

BODY-s.n.a.t.c.hING PATRIOTS.

The fallout from the bomb tests drifted down over the Earth. The radioactive debris found its way into starfish, sh.e.l.lfish, and seaweed. It covered alfalfa fields in upstate New York, wheat fields in North Dakota, corn in Iowa. It seeped into the bodies of honeybees and birds, human fetuses and growing children. The atom had split the world into apreatomica and apostatomica species.

At Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and AEC headquarters in Was.h.i.+ngton, scientists were growing uneasy. Could the fallout from the bombs already detonated be creating a health hazard? If not, how many more bombs could be detonated before the human race would be put at risk? In the summer of 1953, as the radioactive debris from the Upshot-Knothole tests gusted across the continent, a group of military and civilian scientists convened at the RAND Corporation headquarters in Santa Monica, California. Willard Libby, a brash scientist who pa.s.sionately supported the testing program and would be awarded the n.o.bel Prize seven years later for the radioactive carbon dating technique, chaired the meeting. The group decided the only way they could properly ascertain worldwide hazards from fallout was by collecting and a.n.a.lyzing plants, animals, and human tissue from the four corners of Earth. Thus was born Operation Suns.h.i.+ne, one of the most bizarre and ghoulish projects of the Cold War. The source of its name is a matter of debate, but some say it was derived from the fact that fallout, like suns.h.i.+ne, covered the globe.1 According to a 1995 General Accounting Office study, Operation Suns.h.i.+ne was the largest of fifty-nine atissue a.n.a.lysis studiesa conducted by atomic scientists during the Cold War.2 Collectively, the body parts of more than 15,000 humans were used in those studies. In countless instances, scientists took the corpses and organs of deceased people without getting permission from the next of kin.

For Operation Suns.h.i.+ne alone, approximately 9,000 samples of human bones, entire skeletons, and nearly 600 human fetuses were collected from around the world. Since the project was initially cla.s.sified secret, researchers concocted acover storiesa that they used in order to acquire human samples from abroad. The military later began its own top-secret collection program of human urine, animal milk, and tissue samples under the guise of a anutritionala study.

Willard Libby believed that anext to weapons,a Suns.h.i.+ne was the AEC as most important mission.34 aThis statement is made in all seriousness,a he once told fellow Suns.h.i.+ners, abecause if the problems surrounding fallout are not properly understood and properly presented to the world, weapons testing may be forced to stopa”a circ.u.mstance which could well be disastrous to the free world.a Raised on a ranch in northern California, Libby entered the University of California at Berkeley on the advice of his father, a successful farmer with only a third-grade education. One of his teachers while he was an undergraduate was J. Robert Oppenheimer. Although he enjoyed Oppenheimeras lectures, Libby still thought of Oppenheimer as aan active Communista when he was interviewed for an oral history project in 1978.

After receiving his bacheloras degree in 1931 and his Ph.D. in 1933, Libby remained at Berkeley and taught cla.s.ses.5 In 1940, he joined a team of Manhattan Project researchers at Columbia University who were trying to develop a method to separate uranium isotopes. He went on to serve as a member of the AECas General Advisory Committee and as an AEC commissioner. The commission appointment came about because of his support of the H-bomb, he said. aFor some reason, Oppenheimer had decided against the hydrogen bomb, and I fought him, tooth and nail.6 And I won. Thatas why I was appointed to the AEC.a Following the 1952 Mike detonation, it took weaponeers nearly two years to develop a slimmed-down hydrogen bomb that could be delivered by airplane. The perfected weapon, code-named Bravo, was detonated on March 1, 1954, at the Pacific Proving Ground. With a yield of fifteen megatons, Bravo was the largest bomb ever detonated by the United States.7 Not only did it endanger the eyesight of observers within 1,000 miles of Ground Zero, but it also dumped large amounts of fallout on several inhabited atolls and on a j.a.panese fis.h.i.+ng vessel. A number of American soldiers and scientists were exposed as well.

Two days after the shot was fired, 236 Marshall Island residents were finally rescued. A number of them were found to be suffering from severe radiation sickness. The crew of the f.u.kuryu Maru No. 5 (Fortunate Dragon), a j.a.panese fis.h.i.+ng boat that was only eighty miles from Ground Zero at the time of the detonation, also suffered from acute radiation sickness. The fallout from Bravo covered the trawleras decks with a deep white powder that was so thick that the men left footprints when they walked on it.8 The fishermen pulled in their nets and headed for home. But before they did, they rinsed down the decks, a precautionary measure that probably saved the lives of many of them. According to j.a.panese scientists, the crew members received anywhere from 200 to 500 roentgens. Aikichi Kuboyama, one of the crew members, died seven months later.

The Bravo shot and five subsequent hydrogen bomb blasts in the Castle series had a combined yield of forty-eight megatons and distributed fallout over the globe. The fallout triggered an international furor that was to increase in intensity in the ensuing years and eventually culminated in an end to above-ground testing. Prime Minister Nehru of India, Albert Schweitzer, Albert Einstein, and Pope Pius XII were among those who called for an end to nuclear tests. As recently as 1994, the Bravo shot and what the AEC knew about an unexpected wind s.h.i.+ft prior to the blast were the subject of a hearing before the House Natural Resources investigations subcommittee.

Ten months after the Bravo fallout disaster, Libby and his fellow scientists met in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., for a cla.s.sified conference to discuss the latest Suns.h.i.+ne findings.9 By that time researchers had a.n.a.lyzed some fifty-five stillborn babies from Chicago, one from Utah, three from India, and three adult human legs from Ma.s.sachusetts. According to a transcript of the conference, which was decla.s.sified in 1995, Libby told the group that they needed to procure more human samples, particularly from children. Although he didnat explain why, Libby said the asupplya of stillborn infants had been cut off and ashows no signs a of being rejuvenated.a10 He added, aIf anybody knows how to do a good job of body s.n.a.t.c.hing, they will really be serving their country.a11 Libby then turned his attention to the radioactive strontium acc.u.mulating in the oceans. Atomic scientists had believed the sea was an ainfinite sinka but were discovering that wasnat true. Soluble fission products from the bombs probably would remain in the top 100 meters of sea water aessentially indefinitely,a Libby said. Then he returned to the question of procuring human bodies: I donat know how to s.n.a.t.c.h bodies.12 In the original study on the Suns.h.i.+ne at Rand [Corporation] in the summer of 1953 we hired an expensive law firm to look up the law of body s.n.a.t.c.hing. This compendium is available to you. It is not very encouraging. It shows you how very difficult it is going to be to do it legally. We may be able to helpa”I speak now of the Commissiona”in that we hope to downgrade the Suns.h.i.+ne cla.s.sification. At least the existence of the project I hope we will get away with revealing. Whether this is going to help in the body s.n.a.t.c.hing problem, I donat know. I think it will. It is a delicate problem in public relations, obviously.