t h e n e w w o r l dAt that instant–5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time

on July 16, 1945—came an incredible burst of light,bathing the surrounding mountains in an unearthlybrilliance. Then came the shock wave that knockedover two men at S 10,000, then the thunderous roar.A vast multi-colored cloud surged and billowed up-ward. The steel tower that held the bomb vanished,the tower that held Jumbo, 800 feet away, laycrumpled and broken on the ground.

Wrote Enrico Fermi shortly after the test:“My first impression of the explosion was the very

intense flash of light, and a sensation of heat on theparts of my body that were exposed. Although Idid not look directly towards the object, I had theimpression that suddenly the countryside becamebrighter than in full daylight. I subsequentlylooked in the direction of the explosion throughthe dark glass and could see something that lookedlike a conglomeration of flames that promptlystarted rising. After a few seconds the rising flameslost their brightness and appeared as a huge pillarof smoke with an expanded head like a giganticmushroom that rose rapidly beyond the clouds,probably to a height of the order of 30,000 feet.After reaching full height, the smoke stayedstationary for a while before the wind started dis-persing it.”

Fermi then went on to explain the simple experi-ment he took time to conduct that helped consider-ably in making the first early estimates of thebomb’s success.

“About 40 seconds after the explosion the airblast reached me. I tried to estimate its strength bydropping from about six feet small pieces of paperbefore, during and after the passage of the blastwave. Since, at the time, there was no wind, I couldobserve very distinctly and actually measure thedisplacement of the pieces of paper that were in theprocess of falling while the blast was passing. Theshift was about two and a half meters, which at thetime, I estimated to correspond to the blast thatwould be produced by ten thousand tons of TNT.”

Hans Bethe wrote that “it looked like a giantmagnesium flare which kept on for what seemed awhole minute but was actually one or two seconds.The white ball grew and after a few seconds be-came clouded with dust whipped up by the ex-plosion from the ground and rose and left behinda black trail of dust particles. The rise, though itseemed slow, took place at a velocity of 120 metersper second. After more than half a minute the flamedied down and the ball, which had been a brilliantwhite became a dull purple. It continued to rise andspread at the same time, and finally broke through

and rose above the clouds which were 15,000 feetabove the ground. It could be distinguished fromthe clouds by its color and could be followed to aheight of 40,000 feet above the ground.”

Joe McKibben recalls that “we had a lot of floodlights on for taking movies of the control panel.When the bomb went off, the lights were drownedout by the big light coming in through the opendoor in the back.”

“After I threw my last switch I ran out to takea look and realized the shock wave hadn’t arrivedyet. I ducked behind an earth mound. Even thenI had the impression that this thing had gone reallybig. It was just terrific.”

“The shot was truly awe-inspiring,” Bradburyhas said. “Most experiences in life can be compre-hended by prior experiences but the atom bombdid not fit into any preconception possessed by any-body. The most startling feature was the intenselight.”

Bainbridge has said that the light was the oneplace where theoretical calculations had been off bya big factor. “Much more light was produced thanhad been anticipated.”

A military man is reported to have exclaimed,“The long-hairs have let it get away from them!”

While scientists were able to describe the tech-nical aspects of the explosion, for others it was moredifficult.

“Words are inadequate tools for acquaintingthose not present with the physical, mental andpsychological effects. It had to be witnessed to berealized,” wrote General Farrell two days later.Nonetheless, many tried to describe the historicmoment.

Farrell himself wrote:“The effects could well be called unprecedented,

magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying.No man-made phenomenon of such tremendouspower had ever occurred before. The lighting effectsbeggared description. The whole country waslighted by a searing light with the intensity manytimes that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple,violet, gray and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasseand ridge of the nearby mountain range with aclarity and beauty that cannot be described butmust be seen to be imagined. Seconds after the ex-plosion came,” first, the air blast pressing hardagainst the people, to be followed almost im-mediately by the strong, sustained awesome roarwhich warned of doomsday and made us feel wepuny things were blasphemous to dare tamper withthe forces heretofore reserved for the Almighty.”

William L. Laurence, whose sole job was to writedown the moment for history, wrote:

“It was like the grand finale of a mighty symphonyof the elements, fascinating and terrifying, uplifting

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Damage to the instrument shelter at North 1000 isshown in the two top photos. At the bottom, Jumbostands unscathed, its tower crumpled around it.

and crushing, ominous, devastating, full of greatpromise and great foreboding.”

Another time he said, “On that moment hungeternity. Time stood still. Space contracted to apinpoint. It was as though the earth had openedand the skies split. One felt as though he had beenprivileged to witness the Birth of the World-to bepresent at the moment of Creation when the Lordsaid: Let there be light.”

Oppenheimer, on the other hand, has said he wasreminded of the ancient Hindu quotation:

“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”At the time, however, probably few actually

thought of the consequences of their work, beyondending the war. Bradbury said recently, “For thatfirst 15 seconds the sight was so incredible that thespectators could only gape at it in dumb amaze-ment. I don’t believe at that moment anyone saidto himself, ‘What have we done to civilization?Feelings of conscience may have come later.”

Bainbridge reports that his reactions were mixed.“When the bomb first went off I had the same feel-ings that anyone else would have who had workedfor months to prepare this test, a feeling of exhilara-tion that the thing had actually worked. This wasfollowed by another quick reaction, a sort of feel-ing of relief that I would not have to go to thebomb and find out why the thing didn’t work.”

But later he told Oppenheimer, “Now we’re allsons of bitches.”

Ernest O. Lawrence is quoted as saying that fromhis vantage point on Compagna Hill, “the grand,indeed almost cataclysmic proportion of the ex-plosion produced a kind of solemnity in everyone’sbehavior immediately afterwards. There was a re-strained applause, but more a hushed murmuringbordering on reverence as the event was commentedupon. ”

At the control point, Farrell wrote, “The ten-sion in the room let up and all started congratula-ting each other. All the pent-up emotions were re-leased in those few minutes and all seemed to senseimmediately that the explosion had far exceededthe most optimistic expectations and wildest hopesof the scientists. ”

Kistiakowsky, who had bet a month’s salaryagainst $10 that the gadget would work, put hisarms around the director’s shoulder and said,“Oppie, you owe me $10.”

Elsewhere the momentous event had not goneunnoticed. The flash of light was seen in Albuquer-que, Santa Fe, Silver City, Gallup and El Paso.Windows rattled in Silver City and Gallup. So in-tense was the light that a blind girl riding in anautomobile near Albuquerque asked, “What wasthat?”

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A rancher between Alamogordo and the test sitewas awakened suddenly. “I thought a plane hadcrashed in the yard. It was like somebody turnedon a light bulb right in my face. ”

Another man, 30 miles away in Carrizozo, recalls,“It sure rocked the ground. You’d have thought itwent off right in your back yard. ”

A sleepless patient in the Los Alamos hospital re-ported seeing a strange light. The wife, waiting onSawyer’s Hill behind Los Alamos, saw it too, andwrote later:

‘"Then it came. The blinding light like no otherlight one had ever seen. The trees, illuminated,leaping out. The mountains flashing into life. Later,the long slow rumble. Something had happened, allright, for good or ill.”

At the test site, as the spectators watched the hugecloud billow into the sky, the medical officers tookover leadership of the three observation points,watching their counters and maintaining contactwith Paul Aebersold’s crew of monitors patrollingthe roads within the test site. An Entry PermissionGroup, consisting of Bainbridge, Dr. Hemplemannand Aebersold kept track of the reports and madedecisions on movement of personnel around thesite.

At first there was no sign of danger. Then sud-denly, the instruments at N 10,000 began clickingrapidly showing that radioactivity was on the rise.Dr. Henry Barnett, in charge of the shelter, gavethe order to evacuate and soon the trucks and carswere roaring past W 10,000 and on to Base Camp.It later proved to be a false alarm. Film badges worn

by the personnel at the observation point indicatedthat no radioactivity had reached the shelter.

Before long those without further duties werepermitted to return to Base Camp and those withinstruments in the forward areas moved in to pickthem up.

As the sun came up, air currents were createdwhich swept radioactivity trapped in the inversionlayer into the valley. Geiger counters at S 10,000began to go wild. The few men remaining thereput on masks and watched anxiously as the radio-active air quickly moved away before the dangerlevel was reached. Around 9:30 a.m. Bainbridgeradioed the men in the slit trench at MockingbirdGap to return to Base Camp.

Shortly afterward a lead-lined tank, driven bySgt. Bill Smith and carrying Herbert Anderson andEnrico Fermi, moved in to Ground Zero to recoverequipment and to study debris in hope of gettinginformation on long range detection of atomicexplosions. The tank was equipped with a trapdoor through which earth samples could be safelypicked up in the crater.

Fermi later reported to his wife that he found“a depressed area 400 yards in radius glazed withgreen, glass-like substance where the sand hadmelted and solidified again. ”

Meanwhile, General Groves, who had plannedto wait at Base Camp until all danger of falloutwas passed, hoped to make good use of the hoursby discussing with Los Alamos people a number ofproblems connected with the next job on theagenda, the bombing of Japan.

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“These plans were utterly impracticable,” hewrote later, “for no one who had witnessed the testwas in a frame of mind to discuss anything. Thesuccess was simply too great. It was not only thatwe had achieved success with the bomb; but thateveryone—scientists, military officers and engineers—realized we had been personal participants and eye-witnesses to a major milestone in the world’shistory.”

But Groves had other problems to keep himbusy anyway.

The explosion had generated considerable excite-ment around the state and as far away as El Paso.At Associated Press in Albuquerque, the queriescoming in were becoming more difficult to handle.Intelligence Officer Lt. Phil Belcher, now theLaboratory’s Documents Division leader, was sta-tioned at Albuquerque to keep any alarming dis-patches about the explosion from going out. About11 a.m. the AP man told Belcher he could no longerhold back the story. If nothing is put out now bythe Army, he told him, AP’s own stories would haveto go on the wire.

The Army was prepared for this kind of deter-mination. Weeks before a special press release hadbeen prepared and sent to the Alamogordo BombingRange with Lt. W. A. Parish from Groves’ office.With it, Parish also carried a letter to the command-ing officer, Col. William Eareckson, instructing himto follow Lt. Parish’s instructions, no questionsasked.

About 11 Parish was instructed to make hisrelease:

Alamogordo, July 16–The Commanding Officerof the Alamogordo Army Air Base made the fol-lowing statement today:

“Several inquiries have been received concern-ing a heavy explosion which occurred on theAlamogordo Air Base reservation this morning.

“A remotely located ammunition magazine con-taining a considerable amount of high explosivesand pyrotechnics exploded.

“There was no loss of life or injury to anyone,and the property damage outside of the explosivesmagazine itself was negligible.

“Weather conditions affecting the content of gasshells exploded by the blast may make it desirablefor the Army to evacuate temporarily a few civiliansfrom their homes.”

The news ran in New Mexico papers and spreadup and down the West Coast by radio. It didn’tfool everyone. Some days later, Groves reports, hewas dismayed when a scientist from the Hanfordproject said to him: “By the way, General, every-body at DuPont sends their congratulations. ”

“What for?’ the general asked innocently.“This is the first time we’ve ever heard of the

This special lead-lined tank was used by Enrico Fermiand Herbert Anderson for obtaining soil samples fromthe crater shortly after the test.

Recovery team and radiation monitors assemble foraction a few hours after the test.

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Army’s storing high explosives, pyrotechnics andchemicals in one magazine,” he replied.

Colonel Eareckson has since been nominated bysympathetic historians as one of the unsung heroesof World War II. Not only was he forced to takethe blame for this gross mishandling of explosives,but he had to take his orders that day from a merelieutenant.

By late afternoon it was clear there would be nodifficulty with fallout. Bainbridge finally left thecontrol center about 3 p.m. to return to the BaseCamp for food and rest. General Groves, Conantand Bush left for Albuquerque to begin the tripback to Washington.

Groves’ secretary, Mrs. Nora O’Leary, who hadbeen standing by in Washington since early morn-ing for word of the test, received a coded messagefrom her boss and at 7:30 p.m. sent the followingmessage to Secretary of War Stimson at Potsdam:

“Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yetcomplete but results seem satisfactory and alreadyexceed expectations. Local press release necessaryas interest extends a great distance. Dr. Grovespleased. He returns tomorrow. I will keep youposted.”

Although it would be weeks before the measure-ment could be correlated and interpreted it wasimmediately apparent that the implosion weaponwas a technical success. The fire bail, Fermi’s cal-culations with bits of paper and other data avail-able immediately indicated the yield had beengreater than the most optimistic predictions. It wastherefore possible for Groves to follow up his firstmessage to Potsdam with another optimistic one thenext day:

“Doctor has just returned most enthusiastic andconfident that the little boy is as husky as his bigbrother. The light in his eyes discernible fromhere to Highhold and I could hear his screams fromhere to my farm.”

The message was clear. The power to crush Japanhad taken on a new dimension. The device hadworked beyond expectations, its flash seen for 250miles, its thunder heard for 50, and Groves was surethe plutonium bomb was as potent as the uraniumgun.

Through the day of JuIy 16, cars of weary, excitedmen headed back toward Los Alamos. There wasstill a great deal of work to be done and for thosewho were going overseas, the test had simply beena rehearsal.

A new Fat Man was scheduled to be deliveredAugust 6.

When they stopped for meals in Belen the mentalked of inconsequential things and listened tomystified citizens discussing the strange sort ofthunder they had heard that morning and the way“the sun came up and went right back down again.”

Occupants of one car did not recognize the occu-pants of the other. Security was as tight as ever. Itwas not until they reached the guarded gates ofLos Alamos that the flood of talk burst loose.

Mrs. Fermi recalls the men returning late thatevening. “They looked dried out, shrunken. Theyhad baked in the roasting heat of the southerndesert and they were dead tired. Enrico was sosleepy he went right to bed without a word. Onthe following morning all he had to say to thefamily was that for the first time in his life on com-ing back from Trinity he had felt it was not safefor him to drive. I heard no more about Trinity.”

But during the day, rumors of the brilliant lightso many had watched for and seen spread throughthe town. Although few people knew officially whathad happened, most were able to sense or guess thatthe project to which each had contributed his parthad been accomplished.

When he returned to the Hill that night, FredReines found the town jumping. One of thejanitors Reines knew spotted the returning scientist,grinned proudly and said, “We did it, didn’t we?”

"We sure did,” Reines told him.At Potsdam, where President Truman and Prime

Minister Churchill were waiting to meet with Stalinto discuss a demand for unconditional surrenderfrom the Japanese, the news of the successful testof the Fat Man that morning bad a profound effect.Confidence in the test results and the reassurancethat the first bomb could be ready for delivery onJuly 31 froze the previously tentative decision thatthe time had come to issue the surrender ulti-matum. The atomic bomb had made invasion un-necessary and could provide the Japanese with anhonorable excuse to surrender. The war could endquickly. There was no longer any need for helpfrom Russia. Churchill and Truman approachedthe talks in extreme confidence.

There never had been much doubt that the gun-type uranium weapon would work. By July 14, twodays before the implosion weapon was tested, themajor portion of the U-235 component began itsjourney overseas from Los Alamos. A few hours be-fore dawn on July 16, just as observers in theJornada del Muerto were witnessing the incrediblebirth of the atomic age, the uranium bomb washoisted aboard the cruiser Indianapolis at SanFrancisco.

On July 26, the Indianapolis arrived at Tinianand two nights later transport planes arrived withthe last necessary bit of U-235 and the uraniumdevice was ready.

“The world’s second man-made nuclear explosionoccurred over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6,three weeks after the Trinity test. On August 9, thethird such explosion devastated the city of Naga-saki. Japan gave up the struggle five days later, andsurrender ceremonies were held September 2.

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t h e y b u i l t t h e b o m b

These men directed the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos.Most were division leaders, some played other key roles. None ofthem was alone. There were dozens more brilliant young scientistswho made significant contributions. There were countless techni-cians, administrative people, soldiers and WACs without whom thework could not have been done. Not the least were the wives towhom, John Williams once said, should go much of the credit.“They lived in uncertainty and sometimes fear during those tryingyears. They never knew what their husbands were doing and theynever asked. ”

Enrico FermiTheory

Hans BetheTheory

George KistiakowskyExplosives

Robert BacherWeapons Physics

Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves

Director

Manhattan Engineer District

Victor WeisskopfTheory

John von NeumannTheory

J. Robert OppenheimerDirector

Robert WilsonPhysics Research

Cyril SmithMetallurgy

Eric Jette William Parsons

Plutonium Metallurgy Ordnance

5 9

SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

ATOMIC BOMBS DROP ON JAPAN●

� ✍ ✍ ✍ ✎� ✍ ✎

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a f t e r t r i n i t y

A crashing let-down followed the long months ofintense technical effort and the climax of victory;the Laboratory faltered and very nearly perished.Much of the credit for holding it together goes toNorris Bradbury, the Laboratory’s second and pres-ent director and the handful of men who shared hisconfidence in the facility’s future.

Before the summer of 1945 had ended, a massexodus from the Hill had begun. Many scientists,technicians and graduate students rushed to returnto universities and industries from which they hadbeen begged, borrowed or stolen for the wartimeproject. Many were lured away, and still othersseriously tempted, by large salaries offered by uni-versities attempting to rebuild their depleted tech-nical staffs. In general, the Laboratory was staffedat the end of the war with people who were farfrom sure they wished to remain in Los Alamos.

For everyone there were some very large uncer-tainties. Neither the government nor the Universityof California had set down a plan for future opera-tion of the Laboratory. The University had ac-cepted the Los Alamos contract only as a patrioticgesture and there was no guarantee that the con-tract would continue. In the absence of national

legislation on future use and control of atomicenergy, there was little basis upon which to estab-lish an appropriate policy for a laboratory whoseinitial mission was complete. Many thought theLaboratory would be abandoned. Others, sufferingintense pangs of conscience, thought it ought to be—or that it should at least be turned over to basicand peaceful research.

All this was complicated by the question ofwhether or not a location on an isolated mesa topin New Mexico was adequate or satisfactory as apeacetime location for a laboratory of any kind.

Furthermore, life on the Hill had never beeneasy and now, with the job finished, there was littleincentive to endure it. The combination of an ab-sentee contractor and Army administration of com-munity and auxiliary services had aroused a state ofantagonism and irritation that, for many people,could only be solved by leaving Los Alamos. ByOctober, the Laboratory staff, which numbered3,000 at its wartime peak, was nearing its all timelow of only 1,000.

Then, adding to the confusion, Oppenheimer an-nounced plans to return to his peacetime duties,and appointed Bradbury to take over as temporarydirector.

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After the war, the Army-Navy E was presented to theLaboratory in special ceremonies at the Lodge. Gen.

An expert on conductivity of gases, properties ofions and atmospheric electricity, Bradbury hadcome to Los Alamos as an officer in the NavalReserve after an outstanding academic career atPomona, the University of California, Massachu-setts Institute of Technology and Stanford, wherehe was a professor of physics. He was convincedthat the nation would continue to need a laboratoryfor research into military applications of nuclearenergy and that Los Alamos, now one of the world’sbest-equipped research laboratories, was the logicalplace for it. He gambled that the government wouldeventually agree with him.

Meeting with key staff members in October 1945,Bradbury laid his cards on the table. While await-ing legislation, he said, “we should set up the mostnearly ideal project to study the use of nuclearenergy.” However, he continued, “we have an ob-ligation to the nation never to permit it to be ina position of saying it has something that it hasnot. The project cannot neglect the stockpiling anddevelopment of atomic weapons during this per-iod.” The re-construction of a peacetime laboratoryhad begun.

In the spring of 1946, the Laboratory took overtechnical direction of Operation Crossroads atBikini in the Marshall Islands. The historic testseries supplied highly significant technical dataon the effects of atomic weapons on naval vesselsand gave the staff additional experience in the con-

L. R. Groves made the presentation. Project Director J.Robert Oppenheimer is seated at far left.

duct of weapons tests. It also gave the Laboratory aconcrete objective when it was most needed andproved the Laboratory ability to conduct a majoroperation despite the loss of much of its experi-enced staff.

But still the situation in Los Alamos was uncer-tain. The final demoralizing blow had come inFebruary 01 1946 when the community water linesfroze solid for weeks. Water was brought up fromthe Rio Grande in a procession of tank trucks anddoled out in buckets and pans to grim-faced house-wives. The disaster climaxed the bitter resentmentof the system of Los Alamos community operationand hastened the exodus of still more unhappypeople.

In May, Bradbury played his ace: he announcedthat, effective in September, the Laboratory wouldcease to pay the way home for terminating em-ployees. Those who had been unable to make uptheir minds, quickly decided, and the staff stabil-ized, leaving only those who shared Bradbury’s faithin Los Alamos.

The faith was confirmed often throughout thebalance of 1946. In the spring, General Groves ap-proved plans for construction of the Hill’s firstpermanent housing, and prefabricated units wereadded as quick relief for the critical housing short-age.

The biggest boost came in August, when Congresspassed the McMahon Act, establishing the AtomicEnergy Commission and putting atomic energy

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under civilian control. As 1947 began, the Commis-sion took over and the University of Californiaagreed to continue operating the Laboratory. Withthe Commission establishing as its first priority “thestabilization and revitalization of the Los AlamosScientific Laboratory,” it became clear that LosAlamos would continue to play a key role in thenation’s atomic energy program.

Although the Laboratory continued developmentof advanced fission weapons, it shortly embarkedupon its second major mission—development of thehydrogen bomb.

Theoretical possibilities for a thermonuclearweapon, an idea born during a lunchtime discussionin early 1942, had been under study since the ear-liest days at Los Alamos by a special group headedby Edward Teller. Theoretically, the scientistsknew, a fusion reaction was possible, but it requiredtemperatures far higher than any previously createdby man. With the success of the fission bomb, thesehigh temperatures had been achieved. The thermo-nuclear bomb was now in the realm of practicalpossibility.

But major barriers were still unsurmounted. Oncethe cooperative efforts of Teller and StanislawUlam made the necessary conceptual breakthrough,the Laboratory was able to launch an elaborate theo-retical and experimental research program. Thefamous electronic brain, MANIAC, was built tohandle the complex calculations of thermonuclearprocess, and the Laboratory went on a six-day weekto get the job done. In November 1952, two monthsbefore the Laboratory’s tenth anniversary, theworld’s first full-scale thermonuclear explosionshook the Pacific atoll of Eniwetok with the detona-tion of the Los Alamos device, “Mike.”

Since that time, several dozen LASL fission andfusion devices have been tested in eight series oftests in the Pacific and in eight series, comprising100 shots, conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Withnuclear detonations in the atmosphere banned bythe Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, Los Alamosnow conducts a vigorous underground testing pro-gram in Nevada.

During the first decade, as it is today, the Lab-oratory’s primary responsibility was developmentand improvement of nuclear weapons. However, inview of Bradbury’s emphasis on “programs offundamental research and development related tothe problems of nuclear energy,” it is not surprisingonly about half of the total Laboratory effort is nowdevoted to weaponry. Other programs cover a broadspectrum of investigation and development look-ing toward peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Beneficial exploitation of the atom at Los Alamosactually began as soon as the Laboratory wasfounded. Though the whole first purpose of theinstallation was to develop nuclear weapons, thenature of that purpose entailed a great deal of

purely scientific research. It requiredequipment fitted for much more thanof bombs.

people andthe creation

In addition to the enriched-uranium reactor de-velopment before Trinity, Los Alamos reactors us-ing entirely different fuel systems have been created.One of them-the world’s first plutonium-fueledreactor and the first to rely on a fast-neutron fissionchain—went into operation in 1946. In more recentyears the Laboratory has developed a reactor usinguranium phosphate fuel and another using moltenplutonium. One present goal of the Los Alamosreactor program is to find good ways in which todesign “breeder” reactors–reactors using neutroncapture reactions to produce more fuel than theyconsume.

Los Alamos has also created the first nuclearrocket propulsion reactors (not intended to be

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flyable engines themselves, but designed to showthe way toward the creation of propulsion systemsfar superior to those now in use).

Another peaceful program is Project Sherwoodin which ways are being sought to harness theH-bomb fusion reaction and make it do useful work.

Scheduled for completion in 1971 is an 800 MeVproton accelerator which will produce pi mesonsfor the study of the atomic nucleus in ways not nowpossible. In addition, the meson facility may pro-vide a valuable tool for cancer research.

The Laboratory’s Health Research program hasexpanded from radiation effects studies to ex-plorations in the field of molecular biology.

Over the years, while the Laboratory was makingnotable scientific advances, the community of LosAlamos itself was coming of age.

The AEC brought to Los Alamos–in the late1940’s–an ambitious $121 million plan for commu-nity expansion and laboratory relocation which putnew, modern technical facilities on neighboringmesas, removing the unsightly old wooden struc-tures and their high fences from the town’s mainstreet. A spacious, attractively landscaped shoppingand community center was added. Schools andhousing were built in a frantic effort to keep upwith the need. A post office, library and medicalcenter were added. In 1957, the gates came downand anybody who wanted to could come and go inthe town.

Today, except for its rugged mountain setting,the community of bright green lawns and brilliantgardens looks just about like any suburban town.Its more than 16,000 residents enjoy an outstandingschool system, a fast-growing shopping facility,plenty of recreation and three burgeoning resi-dential subdivisions.

If Los Alamos is still not quite a “normal” com-munity, it soon will be. In 1962, federal legislationwas enacted to transfer commercial and residentialproperty on the Hill from federal to private owner-ship and management. Nearly all property is nowprivately owned and final transfer of municipal op-erations and utilities to Los Alamos county wasmade in 1967.

Many changes have taken place on Pajarito Pla-teau during the past decades. Changes which haveaffected not only the community itself, but changeswhich have altered mankind’s whole outlook on theworld in which he lives. But one thing will notchange: the Laboratory’s adventurous spirit andthe unmatched natural beauty of the setting whichprovides much of the inspiration for that spirit.

With an impressive record of accomplishmentsbehind it, and its home town becoming what theAEC hoped in 1947 would be “a community satis-factory to scientists,” the Laboratory can look to apromising future.

I