Alumni Sandstorm ~ 04/13/15
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6 Bombers and Don Sorenson sent stuff: 
Richard ROBERTS ('49), Burt PIERARD ('59)
Mary RAY ('61), Rick MADDY ('67)
Lee BUSH ('68), Lisa PETERSON ('71)
Don Sorenson (NAB)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Dave BURNHAM ('71)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Dave FOWLER ('76)

BOMBER ANNIVERSARY Today: Harvey CHAPMAN & Sally FOLEY ('56)

BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
    Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Richard "Dick" ROBERTS ('49)

I worked as an Asst. Eng. with a group of engineers at 100-D 
spring semester, 1953. I had a Q clearance.

Later in life, I visited my old neighborhood in Boise, ID
where I lived from 10-13 years old. I stopped to see my 
friend the local corner grocer and he said the FBI came 
by and asked about me. 

They do get around.

-Richard "Dick" ROBERTS ('49)
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>>From: Burt PIERARD ('59)

Re: Plutonium v. Uranium, Easter, and Plutonium at Los Alamos

To: Mary RAY Henslee ('61), Duane LEE ('63), Pete BEAULIEU ('62)

My name is Burt PIERARD ('59) and I am the B Reactor Museum
Assn, (BRMA) Historian. I apologize for not keeping up with my
Sandstorms so I just discovered your discussion string today. I
hope I can add to it.

First, to Mary, the purpose of the Hanford Plant was, indeed,
to produce Plutonium but the Oak Ridge Plant was built to
enrich the concentration of the fissionable isotope (U-235),
which is only 0.7% in natural uranium, to a level sufficient 
to explode upon fissioning, called Weapons Grade.

Now to the question of Oak Ridge Plutonium. Shortly after the
first Chain Reaction was demonstrated in Chicago Pile - 1 (CP-
1), in Dec. 1942, the designer of CP-1 proposed a larger Pilot
Reactor design to DuPont. DuPont then undertook the final
design and construction of said Pilot Plant on the Oak Ridge
Reservation, calling it "X-10." This graphite reactor was a
much smaller, reduced version of the Hanford Reactors and only
required air-cooling. The main purpose of X-10 was to test out
the totally new process, like tubes through the reactor to
allow loading and unloading Uranium fuel slugs, determining 
the reactivity as compared to calculated, etc. A side benefit
was the ability to produce Plutonium, in gram amounts 
(the scientists at Los Alamos only had laboratory produced
micrograms - not nearly enough to study the unfamiliar
chemistry and metallurgy of this new element). X-10 went
critical Nov. 4, 1943 and the first 5 tons of irradiated
uranium slugs was discharged towards the end of that month. A
crude Chemical Separation was begun in Dec. I would have to do
some digging to find when the first batch arrived in Los Alamos
but the cited Easter date is probably reasonable. Richard
Rhodes, in "The Making Of The Atomic Bomb," only states that 
"By the summer of 1944 batches of plutonium nitrate containing 
gram quantities of plutonium had begun arriving at Los Alamos."

As a footnote, the first batch of Hanford Plutonium was hand
carried by Col. Matthias to Los Angeles and transferred to a
courier for continuing on to Los Alamos. It arrived on Feb. 2,
1945.

Hope this helps.

Bomber Cheers, 
-Burt PIERARD ('59) ~ Richland   
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>>From: Mary RAY Henslee ('61)

To: Judy WILLOX ('61)

Thanks for chiming in ,Judy! I have wondered for years if I
might not be creating memories about the soil and its special
smell and qualities. Strange are some of the things that stick
with you from your childhood. No accounting for it sometimes.
I don't remember our address on Craighill as I was quite young
and we didn't live there for very long. From there we moved to
a house by Chief Joseph. Loved skating down the hill in front
of Chief Joseph until I got too old for bandaged knees. One
could gain quite a bit of speed coming down that hill as I
recall. I'm surprised no one ever got seriously hurt, what with
the kind of skates we had back then.

We had grass when we moved into our "R" house so there wasn't
that unique earthy smell after a downpour that I remember from
Craighill. If I ever get back up that way again, smelling some
wet soil will be on my to-do list.

I didn't have any Tonka toys to play with in the dirt. You had
better toys than I did. If I had known you were there with
Tonka trucks, I would have come over to your house to play.

-Mary RAY Henslee ('61)
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>>From: Rick MADDY ('67)

Re: FBI

I was probably eight years old. My parents had moved to Downing
Street across from L&C when I was five. I was eight in 1957.
Two FBI agents came to see my father. FBI was a big deal. Even
at eight, I had heard of Al Capone, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie 
& Clyde, Dillinger, etc., etc... gangsters, now known as
terrorists. The Feds talked to both of my parents in the
living room; a three bedroom pre-fab. Although us kids were
sent to our rooms, we could hear everything. They were asking
my dad about our new next-door neighbor, who had applied for a
job in the area. I recall being extremely relieved they did not
handcuff Dad and haul him off.

Dad had a sixth grade education (Iowa farmers), a laborer at
Hanford and when I was much older I was curious about why the
FBI would come and talk to him. Dad had always said the only
reason he went to school that long was to learn how to read and
write so he could sign his check. He had only worked in the
area since '54. My mother reminded me that Dad, a WWII Marine
Corps veteran, had also worked for Boeing in Kansas. We left
Kansas when I was two. He was one of the people who would
drive out onto the runway and pick up the chute from the
landing experimental aircraft. One time, it was the pilot too
after he ejected the jet on a difficult landing. A person
needed high clearance to be anywhere near that runway, I
suppose.

When we left Richland, he worked at the nuke submarine base,
Keyport, outside Poulsbo, WA. He never talked about his jobs. 
I think the only things he talked to about his work life was
probably his beloved plants. Like the FBI, they knew
everything.

-Rick MADDY ('67)
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>>From: Lee BUSH ('68)

Re: FBI in Richland

To: Jean BRUNTLETT ('62)

Yes, the FBI has it's office in the Richland Federal Building
at 825 Jadwin Ave. 

I know the FBI definitely had special agent(s) in Richland in
1973. I know this because I worked with them on a few Richland
bank robberies between 1973 & 1989 when I was a law enforcement
officer with Richland PD.

-Lee BUSH ('68)
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>>From: Lisa PETERSON ('71)

Re: FBI

Clem Parkhurst was the FBI agent that lived on Symons. 
Parkhurst kids are Carol ('68), Janice ('70), Allen ('71) and 
Nora ('72).

-Lisa PETERSON ('71)
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>>From: Don Sorenson (NAB)

Re: Plutonium

To: All Bombers

The first plutonium could have come from either Chicago / Oak
Ridge (and I believe the lab in California but don't quote me.
I'll have to check). I would suspect Chicago. Both sites had
small scale reactors fueled with uranium. Fermi's pile CP-1 was
dismantled and re-constructed in the Argonne Forest and called
CP-2. CP-2 was constructed to allow the uranium to be removed
for separation studies. Oak Ridge had X-10 an air cooled
reactor with a separations facility that was right behind it.
Plutonium was recovered and purified prior to shipment to Los
Alamos. Glen Seaborg's book "The Plutonium Story" contains more
information. Hanford's Pu was turned over to the Army in the
Isolation Building 231-W or 231-Z as its called today. There
was a small ceremony in Vault 2 when the transfer took place.
Major Oswald Greagor signed for the material and it was shipped
by Army ambulance to the vault at the South end of Gable
Mountain. From there it made its way to Los Alamos. The
quantity is probably still sensitive so it will not be reported
here. Los Alamos didn't receive a lot from either site but what
they did have it was recycled thru the lab for the experiments
carried out there. Almost like borrowing the same cup of sugar
to bake cookies. Don't loose it. 

The FBI had a strong presence at Hanford during construction
and had a number of construction personnel in key positions
that reported any suspect actions. There should have been
around 25 agents during the operational phase of Hanford. Not
so much now.

The attached file is the Gable Mountain Vault.
  http://AlumniSandstorm.com/Xtra/Sor/150413-GableMtVault.jpg

-Don L. Sorenson (NAB)
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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