The

Plutonium Files
Americas Secret Medical
Experiments in the Cold War

E I L E E N W E L S O M E

Delta
 Con tents

Prologue 1

PART ONE: THE PRODUCT

1. The Acid Taste of Plutonium 15

2. The Rad Lab 20
3. 1942: The Met Lab 32
4. A Tolerable Dose 42
5. The Manhattan Project Is Launched 55
6. Plutonium Rising 65
7. Planning the Experiment 75
8. Ebb Cade 82
9. Next in Line: Arthur and Albert 88
10. Trinity Site 97
11. A Small Piece of the Sun 105
12. The Quest Continues 120
13. The Rochester Production Line 124
14. A Misdiagnosed Housewife 136
15. Chicago; Upping the Dose 146
16. Postwar Berkeley: The Final Injections 149
vi i i Contents

PART TWO: ATOMIC UTOPIA

17. At a Crossroads 165

18. Comings and Goings 178
19. The AEC and the Politics of Secrecy 189
20. Shields Warren: Patriotic Enough to Lie 197
21. "Wrapped in the Flag" 207
22. The Vanderbilt Women 219
23. The Fernald Boys 229

PART THREE: THE PROVING GROUND

24. Stalin s Labor Day Surprise 239

25. The First GI Guinea Pigs 249
26. "Hot Particles 255
27. Scorched Earth Maneuvers 261
28. Citizen Volunteers 270
29. The Cloud Samplers 272
30. Dispatch from Ground Zero 285
31. The Inverted Mushroom 290
32. Body-snatching Patriots 299

"
PART FOUR: THE BUCHENWALD TOUCH

33. Mice or Men? 317

34. Houston's Paperclip Doctor 330
35. Cincinnatis Battlefield 337
36. The Chambers of Oak Ridge 352
37. Captive Volunteers: Prisoners in Oregon and
Washington 362
38. The Plutonium Experiment: Phase Two 383
39. Tragic Deaths Full of Pity and Sorrow 403
 Contents ix

P art F i v e : T he r e c k o n i n g

40. "We're Coming Clean ' 419

41. Revelations and Tribulations 434
42. January 1994: The Advisory Committee
on Human Radiation Experiments 447
43. Harvest of Sorrow 452
44. Closing the Book 459
45. A Presidential Apology 469
46. Never Again 471
47. Whitewashes, Red Herrings, and Cold Cash 475

Epilogue 481
Acknowledgments 490

Notes 494
Major Sources Used in Notes 552
Index 569