Ernest Graves
did incendiary bombing, and most of the residences were wood and the whole place was
burnt out. There was city block after city block that was nothing.
Q:
That is an important point.
A:
These weapons were more capable, but I think, by and large, we did not feel that they
were going to be any more destructive--just that we were going to be able to do it with
less effort than had been the case in World War II.
That's the first point. The second point is that we became quite knowledgeable about
all the effects of nuclear weapons, the safety procedures, and all that, so we didn't have
some hidden awe of radioactivity as a mysterious force that we didn't quite know. We
knew the dangers, particularly in working where we did in the nuclear assembly
building, which was called the ice house, because it had been an ice house at Los
Alamos before the government arrived. They had taken the old ice house and converted
it into a room where they assembled the nuclear components.
We worked with plutonium. Plutonium is a very dangerous substance on two grounds.
One, it is a heavy metal and heavy metals are very poisonous. Second, it is an alpha
emitter, and it is not eliminated from the body very rapidly if you take some in. Also,
it is very reactive chemically.
We knew that we had to take great care not to take in any plutonium. You wore rubber
gloves and you didn't smoke or eat or do anything in this room. When you got through
working in this room, you cleaned up. You never put your hands or anything near your
face because you didn't want to run the risk that if you had gotten plutonium on them,
you would take it into your body. They had dosimeters and urinalysis and things like
that to check whether or not anybody had gotten any.
Q:
So you were extremely cautious.
A:
We were very careful. This has been a big issue in the nuclear industry. You continue
to read a lot about the woman who worked for KerrMcGee and was killed in an
automobile accident.
Q:
Karen Silkwood?
A:
Karen Silkwood. Most of our group, certainly I, think nothing of that. We think that
was a put-up job from the word go.
Q:
What do you mean?
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