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Declassified record · U.S. Department of Energy

Interview with DR H E Van Alstine on 5/2/74 re Plutonium Injection (Draft)

Dated
May 6, 1974
Document type
Employee record
Length
8 pages
Open the original scanArchive record OSTI ID 16368445 · public domain

Document text

Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.

Page 1

Dr. Van Al stine did not seem t o have been in contact with others about Dr. Van Al stine stated l her role in the metabolic ward was that of a person t-iz:r project- but- did not know what was done to the patients no part in the selection of patients, did not give injections and was not present when Dr. Bassett o r anyone else held discussions with the pati eq ts,regarding their reasons for being injected or the reasons for tr ward. She did recall handling t k specimens the study but did not know which isotope or isotopes were involved. Dr.Val Al stine described Dr.Bassett as a very shy, uncommunicative person. She knew him quite well, having served as his technician during the thirties prior no inforrnatkon abouptthksen patients. She to Bikini in July,1946 14

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he showed Dr. Van Al stine a drawer with papers init which he said provided Since Dr.Bassett returned without mishap there was no occasion for Dr. Van Al stine to look at the contents of the drawer. was in the manner of handling the specimens.--- shipment of specimens t o Los Alamos. Dr. Van Al stine described i n considerable detail the elaborate security precautions that prevailed in the Energy Project at the time. She said that activities were conducted on a need-to-know basis and that there was very little concern with what other pe op wing.In fact,there wasa conscious avoidance &-&dation that was not required i n one's she said that she blotted out the Manhattan Engineering District and Atomic Energy Commission activities quite completely from her mind. The only other individual that Dr. Van Al stine could who studied Addison's Disease and had some of those to time. However, s-

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*was shown copies of clinical material regarding individual cases, she did not recall the cases. She also did not between herself and U & gkC Langham. Conversation between -/George,LeRoy f the University of Chicago 64, F-chZiFt o the first Chicago patient (CHI-1). Dr. LeRoy said that he had inspected disclosure to patients or injection of the patient. and found nothing relevant to the issue of w e would be free to look at the charts ourselves,- * Dr. LeRoy responded that as far as he was concerned we could inspect the chat ts. are no immediate plans for such examination of the charts,the matter was not pursued and the conversation was terminated. Interview of Dr. WilliamnBale of the University of Rochester in his laboratory Dr. Bale was asked what he could recall of the experiment involving injection of plutonium into patients. He said that he A kz & l € was active in the polonium experiment but did not recall anything about the plutonium experiment. When we inquired about the types of disclosure that might have been made he said that t h e polonium experiment. The patients were told that the experiment i s important tothe war effort. t kt kz ey were told that the/substance t o be injected is potentially hazardous in large doses but that the amounts that were to be injected into the pati d !

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&&e experimen& would be important tothe war effort. only people who were enthusiastically interested in cooperating were chosen for the experiments. WmxBxlta discussed the names of some of the xdxxkE2nrdxxhxkh~~x Dr. Bale said that metabolism unit at that time. These included Albert Frenkel, Dorraine Leake, Helen Van Al stine, and Nat Cedars. He said that Albert Frenkel was concerned with tracer chemistry inthe experiments. 6 mentioned some of the others who collaborated Dr. Bale was.-necessarily a principal in & k x ~ all the activities that went on Interview of,,Louis Hempelmann by Dr. Marks and Mr. Miazga a t 1O:OO am on 5/1/74. knowledge of the plutonium experiment as carried out in Rochester. He also knew very little about the work going on i n Chicago and Berkeley atthe time. Dr. Hempelmann was asked about a meeting that was described as occurring late ii n March by Dr. Wright Langham and a few papers. The meeting was said to include

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#Tdck4 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 would be sent to Los Alamos wd iJ cus & y < st if i cation for the concern about protection of personnel 9D r . Hempelmann didn or Xad5xx8z~.any further information about the again s t%---p u onium. He said that am kilogram amounts of plutonium started to arrive at the Los Alamos Laboratory from Hanford i n about March of 1945. This created a need to establish more reliable means of estimating body burdens i n at that time and remained so until the fall of 19 wen6 building, kgan Dr.Friedel l was a t IDS Alamos twice The facilities for working with the plutonium were very crude &xi&-&y a t Rochester because he 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 which did not appear impressive. However, experiment was a-ppa- carried From about June 1945 until August, Dr. Hempelmann said that he was heavily involved in the Trinity &ep a t

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Telephone conversation between Dr. Andrew H. Dowdy and Dr. Marks during Director of the Atomic Energy Project at Rochester during 1945 and 1946. , Dr. Dowdy -&in retirement a t Laguna Hills near Los Angeles. Dr. Warren called Dr. Dowdy and ran opportunity to talk to Dr. Dowdy on the telephone. During the conversation, Dr. Dowdy said that he knew something of Is. I n response to a question as ed t o 'piirnt; he said tKa Bassett had done so but that such reporting occurred at intervals of several months. The reports by Dr.Bassett did not provide Dr. Dowdy an intimate knowledge of the ' He said that he had bsily occupied' with diverse activities as the Director of the entire organization and could not co~&btt.~e-nttn+--e&u.r information. said that he thought the ~+*ewould not be sufficiently rewarding to justify