Human radiation experiments : the Department of Energy roadmap to the story and the records

320 Pages·1995·18.4 MB·English

by  United States. Department of Energy. Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health

DOE/EH-0445
HUMAN
RADIATION EXPERIMENTS:
The Department of Energy Roadmap
to the Story and the Records
United States Department of Energy
Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health
February 1995
}yrcpafty <yi the NIH Historical
,
Office &nii the DeWitt Stetten, Jr.
Museum of Medical Research, NIH
This report has been reproduced directly from the best available copy.
Available to DOE and DOE Contractors from the Office of Scientific and
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[phone].
Coverphoto:Cobalt-60 teletherapy conducted for cancer treatment at the Oak
Ridge Institute for Nuclear Science (1972).
Printed with soy ink on recycled paper
DOE/EH-0445
HUMAN
RADIATION EXPERIMENTS:
The Department of Energy Roadmap
to the Story and the Records
United States Department of Energy
Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health
February 1995
The Secretary of Energy
Hazel R. O’Leary
Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health
Tara O’Toole, M.D., M.P.H.
The Office of Human Radiation Experiments
Ellyn Weiss, Special Counsel and Director
Archives and Research
William G. LeFurgy, Deputy Director
Elly Melamed, Project Coordinator
Roger Anders, Chief Historian
Alyson Burgess
Tom Fisher
Karoline Gourley
David Harrell
Jean Mansavage
Prita Pillai
Cindy Shindledecker
Michael Yuffee
Outreach and Information Center
Lori Azim, Deputy Director
Sheila Allen
Jack Buchanan
Joanne Carter
Wanda Davis
John Dean
Vernetta Gaines
Tom Hoglund
Lisa Kay Marth
Philip Padgett
Dianne Palmer
Ken Rose
Greg Shaffer
Matt Shull
Bob Zielinski
Office Director’s Staff
Marisa Caputo, Special Assistant
Danille Toles
Technical Support
William Demones
Darrell Fisher
Robert Haddad
Alec Oppenhimer
Paul Stregevsky
Daphne Zweifel
IV
Foreword
O
n December 7,1993, U.S. Secretary of Energy Hazel R.
O’Leary announced her Openness Initiative; the scope
of its ramifications has only begun to become fully ap-
parent in the succeeding year. The determination to conduct
the public’s business in an open and fully accountable manner
has required profound change in an agency whose institutional
birth was in the most secret of wartime programs, the Manhat-
tan Project.
Over the past several decades, the American people’s trust in
our institutions ofgovernment has greatly eroded. Many com-
plex factors have contributed to this erosion, not least among
them the secrecy associated with our Cold War nuclear compe-
tition with the Soviet Union. Without judging the historical ne-
cessity of secrecy, and in recognition that even today some ac-
tivities require national security classification, it is a fact that the
ability ofthe Government to perform its post-Cold War mis-
Positronemitterdetector(circa 1962) used to
sions is greatly impeded by pervasive public distrust of its mo- detectbraintumorsatBrookhaven National
tives and competence. The commitment to openness, ofwhich Laboratory.
this project is a very visible element, is a deliberate effort to
rebuild that basic level oftrust between the American people and their government that is necessary
for a democracy to function.
Well over 200 people in Washington, D.C. and around the country have devoted all or most of their
time during the past year to the effort to find, declassify if necessary, evaluate, and make publicly ac-
cessible and usable the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) records related to human experimenta-
tion with radiation. This project extends beyond the records of the experiments themselves to in-
DOE
clude records in the custody of and important private institutions that illuminate the consider-
ations that drove human-subject research. It has called on the expertise of historians, archivists,
health professionals, declassifiers, records managers, lawyers, and researchers ofvarious kinds. In
addition, the advice and comments ofa number ofacademic and government historians and archivists
has been sought and is gratefully acknowledged. While the work is still ongoing, it has reached a
stage at which substantial progress can be reported, as it is in the following pages.
It would be unrealistic to imagine that we will ever find every document that bears on the story of
human radiation experimentation in which the Manhattan Project, the Atomic Energy Commission,
DOE
and have been involved, considering that 3.2 million cubic feet of records still survive in dozens
of locations from coast to coast, many ofwhich are poorly catalogued, ifat all. The goal of this publi-
cation is not to have the final word, but to leave behind a roadmap that will enable the public, histori-
ans, and policy makers, as well as those who participated in experiments as subject or researcher, to
come to a better understanding of this aspect of the history ofthe atomic age.
For me and those with whom have been privileged to work, this has been an opportunity to con-
I
tribute to our country’s understanding of its past and transition to its future. My sincere gratitude is
extended to all ofthose who helped, from Washington to Berkeley and many points between.
Ellyn R. Weiss, Director
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Human Radiation Experiments
February 1995
OakRidgeNational Laboratoryworkerscheckingforradioactivecontaminants(circa 1950).
VI
Acknowledgments
HESE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS must begin with • Dion Farganis, Lenora Flowers, Guy Fringer
Secretary Hazel R. O’Leary, who conceived
this project and whose personal commitment to • Steve Galson, Vanessa Gamble, Michael
Giberson, Robert Gruber, Paul Guthals
openness ensured that the necessary resources
and attention were always forthcoming. Dr. Tara • Bart Hacker, Perry Hall, Hal Halpern, Victoria
O’Toole, Assistant Secretary for Environment, Harden, Zena Hardin, Pat Heinig, Roger
Safety and Health, generously shared her exper- Heusser, Richard Hewlett, Karen Holmes,
tise and provided a strong and supportive admin- Mary Hones, Thomas Hudson
istrative environment.
• BruceJones, PatJones, RickJones, Geoffrey
We also gratefully acknowledge the help of Judge
Glenn Podonsky, Lesley Gasperow, Sandra Fox,
• Bonnie Kapus, Hannah King, Judy Krumm,
VirginiaJohnson, and the staff ofthe Office of Tom Kunkle
Security Evaluations; Martha DeMarre, Fanny
Bryant, and the staff of the Coordination and • Robert Landazuri, Georgette Lane, Lowell
Information Center; and Norma Wilson, Becky Langford, Marsha Lawn
Dobbs, and others from Pacific Northwest Labo-
• Robert Martensen, Brian Martin, Priscilla
ratory. Loretta Hefner of Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory, along with an able and eager staff, MMcoMsisllan, Carol McKay, Roger Meade, Bill
provided invaluable assistance.
Jerome Nashorn, Gary Novak
This work could not have been accomplished •
without the support and coordination ofthe • Rick Oborn, John Ost
pBarritmlaeyr,yBDrOucEefCiheludrcahn,d lMaabxorCarteoarymecro,ntRaicctsh:arJdack • John Parascandola, Gayle Peters, Don Peter-
son
Dickson, Barbara Fitzgerald, Shirley Fry, Ken
Groves, Erskine Hicks, Ed Jascewsky, Ralph • Charles Reeves, Dan Reicher, Chris Reilly,
Kopenhaver, Deborah Maresca, Alan McMillan, David Rothman, William G. Rothstein, Carol
Thomas Row, Gene Runkel, Gary Sanders, Rob- Rueter
ert Schlenker, Yvonne Sherman, L.P. Singh, Judy
• Shannon Savage, Jeanne Schauble, Berta
Stroud, James Ware, and Michael Yesley.
Schreiber, Pat Schuette, Marion B. Scroger,
The project also recognizes the important con- GayLa Sessoms, Mike Smith, Lynne Snyder,
tributions of the following people: Heather Stockwell, John Stoner, Susan
Storch, Cliff Strader
• Dave Anglen
• Tom L. Baccus, Trina Baker, Neil Barss, Rob- • Dennis Trailor
ert Baumgardner, Tom Bell, Anna Berge, • George Voelz
Barton Bernstein, Gabrielle Boudreau, Barbara
• Samuel Walker, Mary Ann Wallace, Denise
Brooks, Peter Brush, Joanne Burrows
Walters, Ashleigh Waring, Spencer Weart,
• Pepin Carolan, Nong Chen, Marjorie Ciarlante, Suzanne White
Carolyn Clark, Margo Clark, Lynn V. Cline,
Frank Cooling, Jim CooJp.er, Jeannie Cuevas • Jeanne Young
• Nancy Zinn, Steve Zobel, Mark Zweifel.
• Cheryl Dawson, Ross Decker, Denise Diggin,
Jerry Dummer Thanks also are due to the staffs of R.O.W.
COMPA
Sciences, Inc., and Industries, Inc.
• Connie Eimer, Patricia Barbosa-Ekman
Glenn T.Seaborg,discovererofplutoniumand Chairman oftheAEC, 1961-1971.
viii
Contents
Foreword v
Acknowledgments
vii
List of Photographs xi
DOE
Chapter Overview of the Project
I. I
Introduction 3
Background 5
DOE Archives and Records 6
DOE Strategy for Finding Experiment Information 8
Information as an Engine for Democratic Government 10
Looking Forward 10
Chapter 2. Narratives and Records Series Descriptions 13
Introduction 17
DOE Predecessor Agencies and Human Radiation Experimentation:
A Headquarters Overview 19
Argonne National Laboratory 47
Brookhaven National Laboratory 63
Hanford Sites 74
Idaho Sites 95
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory 108
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 126
Los Alamos National Laboratory 136
Oak Ridge Sites 150
University of Chicago 183
University of Rochester 189
National Archives and Records Administration 194
S3
Introduction 202
Radiation, Biomedical Science, and Isotope Distribution 203
Human Plutonium Injection Experiments 210
Environmental Releases of Radiation 214
IT*" Yr"- i
Chapter 3. Human Radiation Experiments Associated
DOE
with or Predecessor Agencies 223
Introduction 225
Criteria for Listing Experiments 225
Basic Categories of Human Radiation Experiments 226
The Process of Identifying Experiments 227
Summarizing and Listing Experiments 227
Challenges 227
iibii.imiJJUJ.iE
Plutonium Injection Experiments 229
Argonne National Laboratory 229
Brookhaven National Laboratory 231
Hanford Sites 237
Idaho Sites 238
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory 239
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 249
Los Alamos National Laboratory 251
Oak Ridge Sites 259
—
University of Chicago Argonne Cancer Research Hospital 268
University of Rochester 279
Other 281
Appendices
Abbreviations and Acronyms 291
Radiation Terms 295
List of Experiments from American Nuclear Guinea Pigs:
Three Decades ofRadiation Experiments on U.S. Citizens (Markey Report) 279
Select Bibliography 299
X