Was Flouride a by-product of the Manhattan Project?

 I love this question which I found this morning in our question box. So much in fact that I just had to share it with a Lab chemist I know. (Because I had no idea.) I have copied his response in full here. I recommend both of the links. Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to learn!

"I’m guessing that they are referring to the de-conversion of uranium hexafluoride to form uranium metal.  A byproduct of the de-conversion process would be fluorine – typically as a fluoride.

Here is a NRC web page providing some information on uranium de-conversion:

http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ur-deconversion.html

Also web page for the company that is building a facility in southern New Mexico for uranium de-conversion:

http://www.intisoid.com/index.php/fep/more-information/1300-2/

For example the above facility apparently plans to produce the SiF4 (silicon hexafluoride) as the byproduct instead of a fluoride salt.  As mentioned SiF4 is typically used to make high purity silicon for electronic applications.

With regard to Manhattan Project I’m not sure where the de-conversion process took place and what form, e.g. fluoride salt, they produced at the time."

How many babies were born in Post Office Box 1663?

This question sent us asking Alan, the Lab Historian, for help:

I received the following reply this afternoon from our historian. I am astounded! The 80 in the first year would mostly have been conceived off 'the hill.' The Manhattan Project arrived here in March. Many of the rest would have been the result of local efforts.

Quoth Alan:
"I haven’t been able to find an exact number, but you might find this quote from Jon Hunner’s, Inventing Los Alamos, helpful:

 'Eighty babies were born the first year, and ten newborns arrived every month thereafter' (p. 39)

 That’s essentially a shade under 300 babies born in Box 1663 during the war."

Impressions of Oppenheimer

How do Americans think about J. Robert Oppenheimer today? How do people in Los Alamos think about him?

My personal impression is that most Americans who know about him hold him in awe. I think most see him as a brilliant scientist. Fewer are aware that he served the country as an amazing administrator who came to Los Alamos on E. O. Lawrence's recommendation without a big reputation or even much experience managing. I think people who now think the atomic bombs should not have been used might feel ambivalent about Oppenheimer, but many of them still respect his scientific abilities. People also see him as a tragic victim of McCarthyism, if they know that story.

In Los Alamos he is revered. Some older people here remember him, and he enjoyed the respect and personal affection of many people at the laboratory in his day and in his later years. There are strong feelings about the security hearings, and most people here see the outcome as terribly unjust and even cruel. I don't think anyone here believes Robert Oppenheimer was ever a security threat.

If he didn't oppose it, Oppenheimer was not enthusiastic about the hydrogen bomb. He probably dragged his feet. Edward Teller was a proponent, impatient with Oppenheimer's views, a founder of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and testified against Oppenheimer. Although he was a pretty colorful character, Teller is not fondly remembered here.  As is true with so many aspects of our history, this is a very complicated topic. To what extent Oppenheimer's communist connections played a role, vs. power struggles within the physics community and even in Congress and the military, as well as other factors that were involved, historians will never untangle the security hearings.

As to why the museum is named for Oppenheimer's successor, I will suggest two reasons.

Oppenheimer's name is all around Los Alamos. An award, a lecture series, a street, and several buildings all pay tribute to him. (Wouldn't you expect the Oppenheimer Science Museum to be found in the Oppenheimer Center?)

Norris Bradbury is credited with keeping Los Alamos Scientific (later National) Laboratory alive at a time when it is very possible the US government might have closed it. Many scientists, including Oppie, left shortly after the war to return to their university roles. Bradbury was director for 25 years, an extraordinary tenure, and was director when the original version of this museum opened. Bradbury as a person is also very fondly remembered by those who knew him.

Manhattan Project questions from a high school student.

          I was tempted to send you off to do your own research, but after poking around a little, I realize that your questions fall into some difficult holes in the published record.

1.  How many employees worked in Los Alamos and what did most do?

There were several thousand people living in Los Alamos at the end of the war. Most of them were support staff; technicians, clerical workers, the army, etc. I haven't come across an actual figure yet. According to Wikipedia.org, there were 130,000 people working in the entire Manhattan Engineering District across the country by that time.

2.  How much later after the bomb was dropped did the world find out about Los Alamos?

Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug 6, 1945. Chapter 12 of the Smyth Report (Atomicarchive.com), released to the public on August 12, 1945, describes Los Alamos' work in developing the atomic bombs. OTOH, the city and lab were still highly secret for many years. I have a USGS map of Bandelier National Monument  in my office dated 1953 that shows White Rock, NM. but not a trace of Los Alamos.

3.  Where was most of the uranium found for the bomb?

Much of the Manhattan Project uranium came from pitchblende mined in the Belgian Congo (the Democratic Republic of Congo today.) I believe most of the uranium used at that time came from Africa. The uranium mining industry in America came later.

Good luck with your project!