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Memoranda to and from Dr. Riley

Among Dad's papers that I discovered in 2006 was a memorandum addressed to Dr. Edward C. Riley of the Medical Department, (with copies to G. A. Strasser, Y-12 Plant Shift Supervisor, and H. W. Saylor, Department Superintendent, Building 9206).  Dad submitted the memo Tuesday, February 18, 1947, the final day of work for my Mother and many other CEW/TEC workers. The Memorandum appears to be a response to a request for data from Dr. Riley. The memorandum consists of two sentences at the top of the page, followed by a list of names and a few notes at the bottom. The two sentences read as follows:

Listed below are the people who have worked in the "Q" and Calcining operating areas of 9206, where known air borne 'T' concentrations existed. 

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The data on air "T" concentration and alpha radiation is complied by the Medical Department and any implications or conclusions must be drawn from that department"

NOTE:

"Q" and "T" are Manhattan Project code names. "T" refers to Tuballoy, the code name for the element Uranium. "Q" is the code name for the depleted U238 isotope recovered from calutron receiver carbons.* "R" is the code name for the U235 isotope.

 

* See Manhattan District History, Book V - Electromagnetic Project, Volume 3 - Design, page 3.34.

Calcining ovens at Y-12.

The memo then goes on to provide the names of fifty-four workers, setting out, where and for how long they worked. Dad took the original file copy home with him and kept it there for the rest of his life.

 

During his long career at Y-12 and ORNL Dad must have turned in hundreds of reports, yet this was the only one he kept a copy of at home. Why he did do that, and what compelled him to preserve it for more than sixty-five years?

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The answer to that question is revealed by the exculpatory tone and language of the second sentence. The request for data that my father received from Dr. Riley was limited to two things:

 

  1. The names of employees who worked in the "Q" and calcining operating areas of 9206, and

  2. the length of their work in those areas expressed as six months or less, six months to one year, or one year and over.

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The language disavowing "any implications or conclusions" is disingenuous. To misquote Shakespeare a bit, "The foreman doth protest too much, methinks."

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This memorandum, together with Dad's letter to his parents and the disturbing revelations that surfaced in our "quiet conversation" led me to this question:

 

Regarding worker exposure to radiation hazards in Building 9206 during the Manhattan Project years:

 

  1. What was known,

  2. by whom was it known,

  3. when was it known, and

  4. what was their response?. 

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Mary Lou Bass

F. N. Case

Claudy "Butch"  Osborn

The day after Dad's memo sent to Dr. Riley, the following memo from Dr. Riley was added to the Clinical Records of my mother. Presumably, a similar memo was placed in the file of all the workers set out in Dad's memo. It contains but a single sentence:

The above named employee worked 1 year & over in the "Q" and Calcining operating areas of Building 9206: In these areas air borne concentrations of "T" have been present and at times the Alpha Radiation has exceeded the currently accepted allowable limit for prolonged exposure.

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