Fallout_of_Manhattan_Project

FALLOUT FROM THE PEACEFUL ATOM [B It was 1953 --seven years after Hiroshima --when President Dwight Eisenhower announced plans for the "peaceful atom" so that "the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life."[1,pg.148] The shining star of this program was to be thousands of nuclear-powered electricity-generating plants, worldwide, making electricity "too cheap to meter."[1,pg.149] But electricity was not the only promised benefit. According to author Catherine Caufield, news articles soon began appearing with headlines such as, "Forestry Expert Predicts Atomic Rays Will Cut Lumber Instead of Saws," and "Atomic Locomotive Designed." Between 1946 and 1961, the AEC [Atomic Energy Commission] worked diligently --and spent $1.5 billion of taxpayers' money --to develop an atomic airplane. (The entire Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb had cost $2.2 billion.) Problems with the atomic airplane were obvious from the beginning. The nuclear reactor powering the plane had to be shielded to prevent the crew from getting fried, but shielding is heavy, so an atomic-powered airplane could never get off the ground. According to NEW YORK TIMES science-columnist Peter Metzger, for a time the AEC considered reducing the shielding and employing only older pilots who wouldn't be planning to have any more children. Another problem was the radioactivity that would build up inside the nuclear engine: after running for a year, the engine would contain 20 times as much radioactivity as was released by the Hiroshima bomb. A plane crash would leave a major legacy of radioactive waste spread across the countryside.[2,pgs.203-208] The project was abandoned. The Atoms for Peace program spawned other expensive schemes. For example, NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) was developed at a cost of $1.4 billion. On January 16, 1965, the AEC staged a nuclear accident in the Nevada desert; a NERVA rocket was launched and a portion of its nuclear engine was purposefully burned up so that AEC scientists could study environmental effects of radiation. Six million residents of southern California were showered with radioactive debris by this event.[3] Glenn Seaborg, former head of the AEC, concluded that NERVA would be too dangerous to launch from earth because of radioactive releases.[2,pg.210] The project died a public death in 1972, but in 1994 it was revealed that the Department of Defense had gone ahead and developed a nuclear-powered rocket using its "black budget" (secret funds), as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as the Star Wars program.[4] The Star Wars program itself was subsequently abandoned. The keel of a nuclear merchant ship, the SAVANNAH, was laid in 1958. The ship toured the world, aiming to improve America's image abroad. However, the SAVANNAH was deactivated in 1971, and the project was abandoned. In the mid-1960s, the whiz kids at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico began promoting nuclear-powered pacemakers to be implanted in the chests of patients with heart problems. Pacemakers monitor heartbeat and provide an electrical jolt when needed. At least 100,000 Americans have conventional (non-nuclear) pacemakers installed in their chests at any point in time. The nuclear-powered pacemaker took advantage of a natural characteristic of plutonium-238 which is so radioactive that it gives off heat, which can be used to make a "nuclear battery" producing electricity. Los Alamos scientists spent several million dollars, and several years of effort, on the nuclear pacemaker before they realized there was no way to keep track of such pacemakers and that plutonium-238 would soon be wafting out of the smokestacks of crematories. Plutonium is among the half-dozen most toxic materials ever discovered and it spontaneously bursts into flame upon contact with air, then burns and gives off a fine, highly-radioactive dust. Airplane accidents, certain kinds of gunshot wounds, and hazards to firefighters presented additional safety questions, and the nuclear pacemaker was abandoned.[2,pgs.220-224] The military developed a thousand-watt "man-pack" plutonium-powered battery for use by troops. The device never went into service because, if one were blown up, a large area would have been permanently contaminated by plutonium dust. Nevertheless in 1970, newspaper writers optimistically predicted that within 3 to 5 years campers would be carrying their own plutonium-powered man-packs into the woods.[2,pg.226] The project was abandoned. The Bulova watch company in 1969 announced it was developing a plutonium-powered wrist watch, but the project was abandoned.[2,pg.227] The Navy developed plutonium-impregnated "long johns" to keep divers warm in cold waters. One set of nuclear long johns contained enough plutonium to provide one trillion (one million million million) "maximum permissible lung burdens" of plutonium (333 maximum permissible lung burdens for every human on earth in 1970). One accident involving the loss, rupture or abandonment of one diving suit and the "no swimming" sign would go up forever. The project was abandoned.[2,pg.227] The Monsanto Research Corporation, which operated the lab where the diving suit was developed, promoted a nuclear-powered coffee pot. Such a pot would perk for 100 years relying only on its self-contained plutonium-238 heat source. The plutonium in each pot (1/5th of an ounce) would contain 10 million lethal doses of plutonium.[2,pg.227] The project was abandoned.