What the document says
This is Chapter 7 of Volume 3 of the Los Alamos book in the Manhattan District History. It covers the effort to obtain crystalline boron for the Los Alamos Laboratory. Early in 1943 the laboratory said it needed boron of normal isotopic content and boron enriched in B10, one of the isotopes of boron. The document says production was first regarded as extremely important, that the need was modified somewhat at a later date, and that the project was given the highest priority from the beginning.
Several organizations split the work. Columbia University, named here as the SAM Laboratories, handled research and development. The Norton Company helped develop a way to reduce boron trifluoride and produced crystalline boron. The Harshaw Chemical Company supplied raw material. Standard Oil Company of Indiana designed, built and operated the plant that separated the isotopes. American Cyanamid Company converted the separated complex into the final boron product. The separation method rested on counter-current distillation of a dissociable complex or polymer, which the attached Columbia report calls a novel way to separate isotopes.
The Standard Oil plant ran into two main problems: trouble getting the construction material it wanted, and mercury that entered the plant system during a leak test. The document says the mercury trouble was considered quite serious and led to the erroneous conclusion that the first plant could not be used for production and would have to be replaced. A corrective measure was found later and the original plant proved operable. Over its run the plant produced 736 gallons of heavy polymer. On 8 March 1946 the contractor was directed to cease operation.
Key points
- 01Los Alamos asked early in 1943 for crystalline boron of normal isotopic content and for boron enriched in B10, and the work was given the highest priority from the start.
- 02The Columbia University contract covered research and development toward 500 to 1000 pounds of normal crystalline boron and 50 kilograms of boron containing not less than 90 percent B10.
- 03Columbia had already begun research on separating the boron isotopes in January 1943 and found a promising method in April 1943, before the Manhattan District arrangements took effect.
- 04The schedule called for 1 kilogram of boron as early as possible, 5 kilograms by 15 September 1944, then 5 more kilograms each month until the total of 50 kilograms was reached.
- 05American Cyanamid production continued well into 1946 and yielded 504 pounds of crystalline boron and 242 pounds of a calcium fluoride boron trifluoride complex richer in B11 than normal.
- 06Secrecy shaped the paper trail. Many negotiations were handled by oral discussion, correspondence was held to bare essentials, and the Norton Company records are called extremely sketchy.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, OpenNet declassified document archive, OSTI ID 1130570. The summary is written from the document’s own text. Old scans can be hard to read, so check the original for anything you plan to cite.