What the document says
This report is the record of an interview with Julie Langham Grilly, conducted on February 3, 1995. Interviewers from the Energy Department's Office of Human Radiation Experiments approached her for two reasons. She was the widow of Dr. Wright Langham, a researcher the office had singled out for study, and she had her own long experience around research at Los Alamos. The interview opens with a short account of her background and then turns to her memories of the first years after the war.
Most of the interview covers what she knew of Wright Langham's work. She describes animal research at Los Alamos, tests using radiolanthanum, a radioactive form of the element lanthanum, on monkeys, and examinations of tissue connected with Eniwetok. She also discusses research on how the human body takes up tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, injections of plutonium, injections of tritium, and the use of EDTA, a chemical that binds metals in the body so they can be carried out of it.
Alongside the technical ground, she describes her former husband both as a researcher and as a person, and recalls scientists she knew at Los Alamos during and after the war. Readers should treat the account as personal recollection of events from decades earlier rather than as a technical report of the research itself.
Key points
- 01She was interviewed because she was the widow of Dr. Wright Langham, a researcher the interviewing office had identified as of principal interest.
- 02Her own experience with research at Los Alamos was a second reason the interviewers wanted to speak with her.
- 03She describes animal research at Los Alamos, including tests with radiolanthanum, a radioactive form of lanthanum, on monkeys.
- 04She discusses examinations of tissue connected with Eniwetok.
- 05She covers research on tritium uptake in humans, plutonium injections, tritium injections, and EDTA, a chemical that binds metals in the body.
- 06The interview also records her memories of scientists she knew at Los Alamos during and after the war.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, OpenNet declassified document archive, OSTI ID 221908, document number DOE/EH-0469. 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.