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on 5/1/74. The interview was held inDr. Hempelmann's office. is Professor of Radiology inthe University of Rochester School of Medicine. He was leader of the Health Division a t Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) from 1943 t o 1948. Since then he has participated in a follow-up study of a group of persons having substantial body burdens of plutonium as a result of occupational exposure a t LASL. Dr. Hempelmann indicated that he had little knowledge of the plutonium experiment as carried out i n Rochester. He also stated that he knew very little about the work going on i n Chl'cago and Berkeley at that time. Dr. Hempelmann was asked about a meeting that was described a s occurring late in March by Dr. Wright Langham ina few of Dr. Langham's papers. The meeting was said to include Drs. Hymer Friedel l, Joseph Kennedy of the Los Alamos Chemistry Division, Wright Langham and Hempelmann and occurred l a t e i n March 1945. Dr. Langham wrote that the meeting resulted in a lowering of the maximum permissible body burden of plutonium. However, the need t o conduct a study i n which a hospital patient at either Rochester o r Chicago would be injected with plutonium and the excreta sent to Los Alamos for analysis was also apparently discussed atthe same meeting, which preceded the first injections by only a few weeks. Dr. Hempelmann reported the discussion at the meeting of the need for injection of the patient in a memo toDr. J. R. Oppenheimer. However, when w e showed that memo toDr. Hempelmann, he could neither recall the meeting clearly nor that particular discussion. Dr. Hempelmann did recall that Dr. Friedel l was a t Los Alamos twice; he picked Dr.Friedel l up in his car on those occasions. However, Dr. Hempelmann did not recall the dates of those visits or the relationship to meetings. Dr. Hempelmann discussed the justification for the concern about protection of personnel from plutonium contamination at that time. amounts of plutonium started to arrive at the Los Alamos Laboratory from Hanford He said that kilogram
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i n about March of 1945. This created a need to establish more reliable means of estimating body burdens i n exposed workers. working with the plutonium were very crude at that time and remained so until the fall of 1945 when the plutonium work was transferred to a new building. The facilities for Dr. Hempelmann said that Dr. Warren wanted the plutonium study done a t Rochester because Dr. Warren claimed that Rochester had an excellent metabolic ward. Later when Dr. Hempelmann had occasion to visit Rochester he found that there was only a small two-bed unit which did not appear impressive. However, the principal study inthe human plutonium experiment was carried out at Rochester. The detailed Rochester plan was shown toDr. Hempelmann but he failed to recall the plan and was unable to discuss it. i n an earlier phone conversation that he and Dr. Langham had averted this matter as much as possible after a flap developed about itin AEC i n about Dr. Hempelmann had indicated From about June until August 1945, Dr. Hempelmann said that he was heavily involved in the Trinity ' shot at Alamogordo. activity led to a loss of contact with the plutonium experiment. Furthermore, Dr. Langham carried out the Los Alamos end of the plutonium experiment, which was a joint Rochester-Los Alamos venture. H e implied that this