in monitoring techniques, working conditions were
deplorable by present-day standards.
q
$
Fortunately,
T
F
Criginal count
oT
T
qT
T
qT
After decontamination
g!or
after initial bomb processing was completed in
Oo
August 1946, all work with plutonium was sharply
|
curtailed until the new and greatly improved facilities at DP Site in Los Alamos were opened in
4
L
i
1
A
7
8
S$
4
WOW
6
T
T
T
‘
T
TO
2
Af
8
24
2
to
f
LI
June
t
July
4
Percent of Rooms Whose ‘Counts’ Are Over 5.000
=
J
Original count
September 1946.
40/-
To illustrate the degree of contamination of
laboratories in D Building in 1944 and 1945, we will
Table I shows
Oo
|
‘
per minute correspond to 0.007 ug or 0.0004 pCi of
Fig.
2,500,000 count per minute (or 35 Ug) swipe in D-117
4.
Figure 4 shows
7
B
June
9
24
30
4
6
2
4
18
July
4
2
4
Chart showing the percent of laboratories
in D Building in June and July 1945 with
“hot" spots requiring decontamination.
The lower line indicates the counts after
decontamination. Note that about 50 percent of the laboratories had contamination
in excess of 500 counts per minute on two
occasions.
RARKK
During the war years, when piutonium was the
primary concern of the radiochemists, the unit of
measure of plutonium was usually considered to be
its weight (i.e., micrograms, grams, etc.).
7
Percent of Rooms Whose “Counts” Are Between 500 and 5000
plutonium isotope mixture of that time; note the
)}.
7
10
oratories in D Building in March 1944 [500 counts
(used by the Recovery Group
J
a 2,
the maximum and minimum "swipe”™ counts in all lab-
RAEKKK
After Decontamination
2
present a few almost random experiences taken from
various reports issued at the time.
4
= 30
o
In the
1950's, presumably because of the influence of the
health physicists (and because chemists became more
involved with physics), radioactivity (i.e., micro‘curies, etc.) became the unit of measure. Both
units are given throughout this paper.
TABLE I
MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM SWIPE COUNTS IN D BUILDING (MARCH 1944)
Room No.
First
Maximum
Minimum
Last
101
16
274
0
18
102
158
3,319
32
642
103
110
739
24
122
104
399
14,560
12
150
108
338
4,652
60
826
109
177
4,078
50
3,547
110
321
15,176
59
59
112
807
17,450
27
51
113
308
561
17
57
114
10
172
4
31
Room No.
First
115
33
116
9
117
8
118
244
119
10
0
21
9
37
0
1,198
120
3
816
121
0
81
0
42
122
12
128
0
24
123
90
130
12
64
124
7
176
5
46
126
73
17,832
127
44
363
133
41
610
3
13
134
58
68
Q
25
136
6
3,712
oO
91
Maximum
Minimum
Last
70
§8 2,500,000
6,000
1,387
128
52
94
129
83
83
1
2,368
10
48
16
19
2
0
QO
506
28
22
46
6
132
6
5,796
1
85
Room No.
First
Maximum
Minimum
Last
137
93
2,928
0
833
138
7
448
6
33
139
23
23
7
12
140
81
81
12
42
141
0
15
O
2
143
8
15
8
8
144
0
0
0
30
145
0
114
0
126
146
338
338
5
16
Room No.
148
151
152
201
202
30
30
0
204
0
0
0
0
205
21
21
21
21
207
45
45
45
45
209
73
73
73
73
Room No.
First
Maximum
Minimum
Last
First
Maximum
Minimum
Last
Reem No.
125
40
4,592
30
20
20
79
18
36
210
211
First
19
22
Maximum
19
22
Minimum
19
Last
19
104
0
42
23
23
23
23
9
9
9
9
22
22
wes