Today is the 74th anniversary of the first atomic bomb detonation, "Trinity." Here's my New Yorker piece on the test from a few years back.https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-first-light-of-the-trinity-atomic-test …
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Scientist Philip Morrison later said that the "scariest thing" about the test experience was "the fast driving young woman who drove us down there with the convoy, who was a high-speed, pedal to the floor the whole way."
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Groves and Oppenheimer had to watch the test from different shelters, separated a bit, so that if one of them died, the other could keep managing the project.
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Groves stationed 20 government agents in nearby towns not just to monitor for safety issues, but to counter any damage claims that people nearby might later attribute to the blast and ask for compensation from.
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The Army deliberately did not pursue the question of fallout exposure from the test too diligently, because they feared lawsuits.pic.twitter.com/RBkcxhbmm7
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All of the above come from the CDC's Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment Report, vol. 5 (2007), appendix N. https://wwwn.cdc.gov/LAHDRA/
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My favorite quote on Trinity remains test director Kenneth Bainbridge's: "Now we are all sons of bitches."http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2015/07/17/now-we-are-all-sons-of-bitches/ …
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