Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years, Oral History of Biochemist William D Moss

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HUMAN RADIATION STUDIES: REMEMBERING THE EARLY YEARS .Oral History of Biochemist United States Department of Energy Office of Human Radiation Experiments

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her Openness Initiative. As part of this initiative, the Department of Energy Iundertook an effort to identify and catalog historical documents on radiation experiments that had used human subjects. The Office of Human Radiation Experiments coordinated the Department’s search for records about these experiments. An enormous volume of historical records has been located. Many of these records were disorganized: often poorly cataloged, if at all; and scattered across the country in holding areas, archives, and records centers. The Department has produced a roadmap to the large universe of pertinent dormation: Human Radiation Experiments: The Department of Energy Roadmap to the Story and the Records (DOEEH-0445, February 1995). The collected documents are also accesThe passage of time, the state of existing records, and the fact that some decisionmaking processes were never documented in written form, caused the Department to consider other means to supplement the documentary record. In September 1994, the Office of Human Radiation Experiments, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, began an oral history project to fulfill this goal. The project involved interviewing researchers and others with firsthand knowledge of either the human radiation experimentation that occurred during the Cold War or the institutional context in which such experimentation took place. The purpose of this project was to enrich the documentary record, provide missing information, and allow the researchers an opportunity to provide their perspective. Thirty audiotaped interviews were conducted from September 1994 through January 1995. Interviewees were permitted to review the transcripts of their oral hstories. Their comments were incorporated into the final version of the transcript if those comments supplemented, clarified, or corrected the contents of the interThe Department of Energy is grateful to the scientists and researchers who agreed to participate in this project, many of whom were pioneers in the development of

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Early Career at Los Alamos .........................................1 Developing Occupational Exposure Limits .............................4 Exposure Accident Creates Need for More Sensitive Testing ...............6 Wright Langham Joins the Los Alamos Health and Safety Group ............8 Early Development of Bioassay Tests to Measure Plutonium Exposure .......2 Langham Analyzes Results of Previous Plutonium and Polonium Injection Studies ...................................9 Langham Enacts Stringent Research Controls .......................... 10 December 2. 1944 Memo Proposes Human Injection Study ............... 12 Polonium Studies at Rochester ...................................... 12 for 1945 Oak Ridge Injection Study ............................... 12 Animal Injection Studies Prove Inconsistent Across Species ............... 13 Langham and the Development of the Cupferron Procedure ............... 14 Use of the Bismuth Phosphate Test .................................. 15 Reanalysis of Excretion Studies to be Published ........................ 18 Finding and Correcting Errors in the Data ............................. 19 Other Information Contained in the Langham Research Notebooks Other Bioassay Studies ............................................ 22 Tissue Registry Program at Los Alamos ............................... 24 Los Alamos Staff Participants in Studies .............................. 26 Long-Term Profiles Performed With Radium .......................... 27 Public Misperceptions About Radiation ............................... 28 Los Alamos Analyzes Urine and Fecal Samples Decisionmakers Involved in Authorizing Human Injection Studies .......... 13

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The opinions expressed by the interviewee are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Department neither endorses nor disagrees with such views. Moreover, the Department of Energy makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by the interviewee.

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Interview with William D. Moss Setting: November 30, 1994. Los Alamos, New Mexico Interviewers: Marisa Caputo and Darrell Fisher (DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments) ORAL HISTORY OF BIOCHEMIST Conducted on November 30, 1994, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, by Dr. Darrell Fisher, a health physicist from Pacijic Northwest Laboratory, and Marisa Caputo, Oral History Team Leader and Special Assistant from the OfJice of Human Radiation Experiments, US. Department of Energy. William D. Moss was selectedfor the Oral Histoly Project because of his plutonium chemistry research at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Specijically, Mr. Moss has been one of the primary researchers in the yearly studies of the Los AZamos plutonium workers. In addition, Mr. Moss studied bioassay, the metabolism ofplutonium in the human body, and updated the Langham excretion firnetions for h4r. William D. Moss was born in Verona, Pennsylvania, on November 25, 1924. He received his B.S. (Chemistry and Biology, 1950) from Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas. Mr. Moss has also taken advanced courses at the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos Center. Mr. Moss joined the staffof the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1953 and is still employed at the Laboratory. From 1953 to 1957, Mr. Moss was a Chemical Technician in the Health Division’s Industrial Hygiene Division (H-5). He became a staffmember in H-5 in 1958. From 1964 to the present, Mr. Moss has held the following positions within H-5: Alternate Section Leader, Bioanalytical and Chemistry Section; Acting Section Leader, Bioanalytical and Chemistry Section; and Section Leader, Bioanalytical and Chemistry Section. Mr. Moss has focused his work on analytical chemistry related to industrial hygiene and health physics. Moreover, he has set up sampling methods for toxic materials and evaluation of occupational health hazards. Specifically, Mr. Moss has researched and published numerous articles on the medical follow-up studies of the Los Alamos plutonium workers and on the effect of plutonium on the human body. Early Career at Los Alamos CAPUTO: Today is November 30, 1994. My name is Marisa Caputo. I’m with the Office of Human Radiation Experiments of the Department of Energy [(DOE)]. With me is Dr. Darrell Fisher from Pacific Northwest Laboratory. We’re here today at Los Alamos National Laboratory’ to interview William Moss about his experiences at Los Alamos, and his knowledge of human radiation experimentation that occurred here. Mr. Moss, I’d like you to begin with a quick sketch of your educational background and what brought you to Los Alamos to begin with. ’ Los Alamos was a key research and development center for the secret effort during World War I1 to create the first atomic bomb. the Manhattan Project. Subsequently, as a National Laboratory of the Department of Energy and its predecessors, Los Alamos has been a research and development center for nuclear weapon designs. high-energy physics research. and other scientific endeavors.

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interview with William D. Moss Setting: November 30, 1994, Los Alamos, New Mexico interviewers: Marisa Caputo and Darrell Fisher (DOE office of Human Radiation Experiments) My educational background: I have a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Biology from Sterling College, Sterling, Kansas. My interest in Los Alamos stems from the use of the atomic bomb [against] Japan in August 1945. I read about that, and I read an article in Life Magazine about Los Alamos. [As a result,] I had an interest in Los Alamos and what was going on [there]. After graduating fiom college in 1950, I taught chemistry at a high school in Arizona. I met a young lady out there who, eventually, I married. Her sister lived in Los Alamos. and we [went] to visit [her]. I [applied to work at Los Alamos] in November of 1952, and I was employed in March of 1953. I took the job as a chemist in the tivity. I’ve essentially been in that profession since then. So, for over forty years, you’ve been at the Lab? I’ve had diversions within that [time], but I’ve stayed within that same interest. I became rapidly interested in perfection of analytical procedures and the interpretation of the data, and that’s where we are today. Who did you work for initially? And who were your professional colMy first contact was the fellow who hired me: Moms Milligan. Hany Schute was the group leader [(H-5, Industrial Hygiene)] and Ed Hyatt was the deputy group leader. The assignment I had was to learn the analytical procedures involved in the analysis of not only radioactive materials, but organic and inorganic [materials]. It was a combined function of that chemistry group to do industrial hygiene and [radiolbioassaf samples. Moms Milligan was my immediate supervisor. Early Development of Bioassay Tests to Measure Plutonium Exposure Can you describe some of the capabilities of your group in H-5 for pluWhen I came into the group they were using a procedure that had been developed by [Edwin] Russell at the Met LabGin Chicago. It was called Formed in a May 1947 reorganization, the “H”or Health Division had responsibility for a much broader range of health activities than its predecessor. the Health Group (Group A-10). These responsibilities included radiological safety. health physics. and industrial health. The H Division also monitored exposures and was responsible for safety for all weapons tests conducted by the Laboratory. analysis of urine or feces analysis of radionuclides in the urine or feces a fissionable transuranium (synthetic) element. Pure plutonium is a silvery metal that is heavier than lead and is used as a critical component in nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb, detonated at Alamogordo. New Mexico. July 16, 1945. and the atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki. Japan, August 9. 1945, were plutonium weapons. Because plutonium is highly toxic, concern developed early in the Manhattan Project about its potential health effects on workers involved in machining. chemically processing. and handling the material. Metallurgical Laboratory. the laboratory set up at the University of Chicago during World War I1 to lead the secret research and development of controlled nuclear fission under the Manhattan Project. In particular. the Met Lab was responsible for the design of reactor facilities to make plutonium and development of methods

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Interview with William D. Moss Setting: November 30,1994, Los Alamos, New Mexico Interviewers: Marisa Caputo and Darrell Fisher (DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments) tory at Los Alamos started using that procedure in October 1949. It’s ously had used what the? called the cupferron procedure.’ That procedure was developed here at Los Alamos in the latter part of 1944 to analyze low concentrations of plutonium in urine, fecal, and tissue samples. That procedure was used from [December 1944 to October 19493. trol and the use of spike samples,’ and so on. The procedure had been developed [in 19441 and Langham took on the responsibility of supervising the people [using the procedure in February 19451. FISHER: Who developed the procedure? MOSS: It was developed by a team of people, headed by a fellow named Don Mastick. It’s an interesting story about Don. He was involved in a serious plutonium exposure in August 1944, in which 10 milligrams1° of plutonium blew up in his face. He ingested some unknown quantity of plutonium. He was a young scientist, who had just come to the project. The division leader for chemistry, a fellow by the name of Joe Kennedy,“ had previously worked with [Glenn T.] Seaborg I 2 out of Berkeleyi3and was a codiscoverer of plutonium in 1941 along with Art Wahl.14Art Wahl and Kennedy had come to Los Alamos and Seaborg, of course, was working back in Chicago [at the Metallurgical Laboratory], when this accident happened in August [1944]. Kennedy went to Hempelrnan~~,~~who was leader for the Health Group, and said they were quite concerned about this person’s exposure [befor chemical separation of uranium, plutonium, and fission products from irradiated nuclear fuels. a chemical extraction procedure using organic solvents to extract plutonium from a dissolved ash solution Langham, regarded at the time as “Mr. Plutonium,” led the Health Division‘s Radiobiology group from 1947 until his death in 1972. samples of urine or feces to which is added a known amount of plutonium to test the efficiency of plutonium recovey during the bioassay analysis process Dr. Joseph Kennedy, Ph.D.. U.S. chemist. After working with Dr. Glenn Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley. prior to World War 11, Kennedy was chosen by J . Robert Oppenheimer to lead the Chemistry Division of the Manhattan Project. After the war. Kennedy taught at Washington University in U.S. chemist. born 1912. professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, discoverer of several heavy elements and Nobel Prize recipient in 1952. Served as Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy University of California Berkeley, site of groundbreaking early research in nuclear science and location of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory l4 Dr. Arthur Charles Wahl, Ph.D., U.S. chemist. Codiscoverer of plutonium with Glenn Seaborg. Worked in the Manhattan Project in World War 11. then taught at Washington University in St. Louis. ’‘ a group leader in the Health Division at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1943 to 1947. and led the division from 1946 to 1948. An expert in radiology and radiobiology, Hempelmann served in the Atomic Energy Commission from 1948 to 1950. then joined the faculty of the University of Rochester. l o A milligram is one-thousandth of a gram: there are about 28.35 grams in one troy ounce.

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Interview with William D. Moss Setting: November 30, 1994, Los Alamos, New Mexico Interviewers: Marisa Caputo and Darrell Fisher (DOE Oftice of Human Radiation Experiments) cause] there was no method of measuring the concentration that might be in his body after ingestion of an unknown amount of plutonium. Ten milligrams, at that time, was a lot of plutonium. By August 1944, Los Alamos had received only 5 1 grams of plutonium. This accident was serious enough that they wrote a memo stating they wanted some [measure of] protection for their people. Developing Occupational Exposure Limits FISHER: Wasn’t the early permissible intake limit for plutonium about 5.0 microThat was the tentative level established by the Met Lab in Chicago. There is some suggestion, from reading the notebooks of the people who were employed in the [Los Alamos] Health Group in July and August 1944, that Hempelmann was quite concerned about [the] 1.O-microgram burden. The absolute certainty of that is not documented. As a result of the accident, Oppenheimer’6authorized Hempelmann to assign people to develop a more sensitive method for measuring plutonium [in excreta]. The Met Lab had suggested a method for measuring 5-microgram body burdens. In looking at [researcher] Ann Perley‘s” notebook ([she was] the person that was assigned to look at the Chicago procedure) she tion]. Hempelmann was interested in measuring 1 .O-microgram [or less This was in the fall of 1944? This is August ’44. [The first reference to a 1.O-microgram Pu burden is contained in a March 26,1945 memo, Hempelmann to Oppenheimer.] Hempelmann indicates in other memos that a procedure is needed to accurately measure plutonium [in excreta] for purposes of occupational I’ll give you the background on that. I got this from Louis Hempelmann himself. He was the M.D. who had come to Los Alamos in April 1943. You probably know the background of his selection, so it’s not imporFISHER: Go ahead. l 6 J. Robert Oppenheimer. U S . nuclear physicist (1904-67) who was chosen by General Leslie Groves to direct the development and construction of the atomic bombs at Los Alamos Perley. a biochemist. had worked for Hempelmann at Washington University in St. Louis. before Hempelmann went to Los Alamos: she died in 1995.

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Interview with William D. Moss Setting: November 30, 1994, Los Alamos. New Mexico Interviewers: Marisa Caputo and Darrell Fisher (DOE Office of Human …