This issue looks at Vannevar Bush’s legacy of Federal funding for basic scientific research as the Trump administration cuts back on funding.
The Department of Energy’s Chris Wright is calling for a “Manhattan Project 2” to ensure American predominance in artificial intelligence and to jump-start a long-awaited renaissance for nuclear energy. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is at the center of the nuclear reactor revival.
The public’s interest in the Manhattan Project was galvanized by the movie “Oppenheimer,” doubling the number of visitors at some sites in 2024. This year, they are still coming but may discover reduced offerings as NPS’s resources are stretched thin. With a hiring freeze, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) has filled leadership positions on an acting basis.
Recently, Amy Cole became acting Superintendent of MAPR while working her regular full-time job in Denver, and Nicholas Murray took over as acting Site Manager at Los Alamos.We are delighted with these appointments and hope they can be made permanent.
This issue also highlights two excellent documentaries. One is about the experience of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. The other features Manhattan Project veteran Dieter Gruen, who fled from antisemitism in Nazi Germany as a young teenager to the United States. At 102, Dieter is still innovating, improving the efficiency of solar panels.
AMERICAN SCIENCE: PAST AND FUTURE
Vannevar Bush (above,1890-1974) was an MIT engineer and inventor who knew the importance of science and technology for war and peace. As the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, Bush drew upon universities, including MIT, Harvard, University of Chicago, and the University of California, Berkeley. These partnerships produced radar, the proximity fuse, the atomic bomb, and other inventions that were critical to winning the war.
In 1944, Roosevelt asked Bush to suggest ways to support American prosperity in peacetime with Federal investment in science and technology. Before World War II, American science had very little Federal funding and lagged far behind Europe in nuclear physics and other fields.
In 1945, Bush recommended robust Federal funding support for basic research. His report, “Science, the Endless Frontier,” led to the creation of the National Science Foundation in 1950. Bush also advocated creation of the national laboratory system in collaboration with universities and industry. Today, there are 17 national laboratories engaged in a spectrum of research. These investments in scientific research by the Federal government have been the catalyst for America’s scientific dominance and productivity for 75 years.
President Trump has worried about America’s losing its scientific edge and urged his science advisor, Michael Krastios, to continue Vannevar Bush’s vision. However, Kratsios told the National Academy of Science in May that industry and philanthropies should pick up more of the cost.
This sounds good but that strategy is unlikely to make up for the drastic cuts proposed or underway. While industry may contribute to some extent, its focus is not on basic research but on developing commercial products and making profits.
Even with two recent grants for almost $3 billion from the Bloomberg Philanthropies, Johns Hopkins University is turning to earnings on its $13.2 billion endowment to preserve research and protect researchers, trainees and staff amid severe cuts to their current Federal funding.
Some see these policies as a gift to China. As The New York Times reports, Nobel laureate Ardem Patapoutian received an offer from China to move his lab from California to “any city, any university he wants.” The president of the National Academy of Sciences said, “China is not going to cut its research budget in half.” Scientists need stability for long-term research projects, not the chaos that comes from arbitrarily slashing funding.
PROFILE OF AN IMMIGRANT
Born in 1922, Dieter Gruen enjoyed a happy childhood in the small village of Waldorf, Germany, where his father was a high school principal. After Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, however, everything changed.
The German government prohibited Jews from teaching at German schools and universities. Thousands of Jews, including Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Dieter’s father, lost their jobs. Members of the “Hilterjugend” or youth wing of the German Nazi Party regularly beat Dieter after school because he was Jewish. His grandmother realized Dieter needed to leave Germany to save his life. Relatives in Little Rock, Arkansas agreed to take him and in 1937, Dieter sailed for New York City.
A recent documentary, titled Change: A Warming Warning, traces how Dieter made his way as a new immigrant. Quickly mastering an unaccented English, he impressed his high school science teachers who helped him get a full scholarship to Northwestern University. In 1944, with a BS in chemistry he was recruited to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge.
After the war, Dieter got a PhD in chemical physics from the University of Chicago. He worked on the Chicago Pile-3 and joined the Argonne National Laboratory in 1951. Always learning new things and inventing others, at 102 Dieter has invented a way to improve the efficiency of solar cells by 86 percent.
Congratulations to Dieter for his many ground-breaking contributions to science and technology. His lifelong accomplishments are an inspiration.
Click here to watch the documentary on YouTube, To listen to Dieter Gruen’s oral histories, click here.
LAUNCHING A MANHATTAN PROJECT 2
On February 25, DOE Secretary Chris Wright enjoyed a tour of the Oppenheimer house, sitting at Oppie’s desk where he recalled “the greatest scientific and engineering concerted effort in history.”
In a press conference on the front lawn, Wright called for a Manhattan Project 2 to compete with China on A-I development. “In the next few years, A-I is going to change our world not just economically, but in science and national defense…We must win the A-I race, just like we did the Manhattan Project.This is Manhattan Project 2.”
As Wright envisions, the national laboratories would play a key role in this endeavor by “unleashing an American renaissance in affordable, abundant commercial nuclear energy.” See article below on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s initiatives.
A NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE
On May 23, 2025, the White House promised to “usher in a nuclear renaissance.” A combination of initiatives would invest in advanced nuclear technologies, rebuild the nuclear fuel supply chain, and galvanize the expertise of the national laboratories to meet America’s growing energy needs for AI and other technologies. Part of the strategy is to expedite review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The former Manhattan Project sites are ideally situated to play a leading role in the renaissance. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has ambitious plans that are supported by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee who is recruiting nuclear companies with $50 million in incentive funds.
In Oak Ridge, the 2,000 acres near where the K-25 plant once stood are a natural home for the nuclear industry. Already underway is a 35-megawatt molten salt cooled reactor called Hermes. A new kind of uranium fuel called TRISO (or tristructural isotropic particle fuel) will be manufactured nearby.
In September 2024, Orano USA announced Oak Ridge as the site of a new multi-billion-dollar uranium enrichment facility, the single largest investment in Tennessee history. Finally, Infinity One, a prototype fusion device is being developed by Type One Energy. For more details, see ORNL‘s article “Nuclear is here.”
NEW NUCLEAR WORLD ATLAS
Now you can explore where the world’s nuclear facilities are located using the interactive Nuclear Atlas recently posted on the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC) website. Detailed maps show the locations of missile sites, nuclear weapons production sites, strategic bomber and submarine bases, and more.
Frank Settle, an analytical chemist and author of the book General George C. Marshall and the Atomic Bomb created maps of all the known nuclear-armed states and Iran. For each country, the maps include important historic and active sites. To explore the new Nuclear Atlas, see the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center website here.
ROUNDING UP JAPANESE AMERICANS
For Julie Otsuka, award-winning author of Buddha in the Attic and other books, “Writing is an act to keep memories alive and resurrect memories that have been left out of the historical record.”
Over the past 20 years, Otsuka has been writing about the experience of Japanese Americans who were rounded up by the US government in February 1942 and held in internment camps during World War II. Her own family was subjected to three difficult and humiliating years.
In this short video by NHK’s Hideharu Watanabe, Julie recounts that her mother never talked about her life in an internment camp until she suffered from dementia decades later. Fortunately, Julie incorporated her mother’s and other Japanese Americans’ wartime stories in her novels.
The abrupt removal and internment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast was one of the darkest episodes in American history. Thanks to Julie Otsuka’s novels, we have a chance to learn about the internment camps and the trauma Japanese American families experienced and passed on to future generations.
ATOMIC EXPLOSIONS & RESTORATION
Unfortunately, the iconic B Reactor will be closed to visitors for at least two years. Contractors are replacing the roof of the 80-year-old reactor and making other repairs.
This summer the NPS is offering “Atomic Explosions” for visitors to Hanford while the B Reactor is undergoing restoration. The Atomic Explorations programs are free one-hour history and science talks. In addition, tours will be going to the Bruggemann ranch and other pre-World War II sites. See press release for details.
By July 3, 2024, visitors from 38 countries and 48 states, all but Maine and Vermont, had taken the tour of the B Reactor. The reactor looks the same as it did in 1945 when it produced plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb. As DOE’s Colleen French said “There is that amazing moment when you walk into the front face of the reactor and a hush falls over the crowd and they learn about the significance of what they are looking at. You are standing face to face with history.” (From Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, July 3, 2024).
DORM TO BE NPS VISITORS’ CENTER
Work is underway to restore this two-story dormitory which originally housed women during the Manhattan Project. It was once one of four dormitories located in a quadrangle and is the only one remaining. After the war, the building was used as a Christian Science Society church.
The Los Alamos County purchased the property in 2019. Once restored, the dormitory will serve as an interpretive and visitor’s center for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Located at 1725 17th Street, the property is a short walk from the Oppenheimer House and Bathtub Row.
In AHF’s interview, Rebecca Bradford Diven tells us that her “room was nine-by-twelve and it had an Army cot, a small old desk and chair, and a closet with no door…There was a camaraderie that developed, and many of us became lifelong friends.”
REMEMBERING RICHARD L. GARWIN
As William Broad wrote in The New York Times, ” ‘Richard Garwin was ‘the most influential scientist you’ve never heard of,‘ according to his biographer.”
Garwin dedicated his life to influencing science policy at the highest levels, advising 13 US Presidents from President Eisenhower to President Obama. Unlike Henry Kissinger. Richard Garwin did not seek public recognition but wielded enormous influence on science policy for decades. The Atomic Heritage Foundation has an interview with Garwin on YouTube here.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1928, Dr. Garwin was a science prodigy. In 1947 at age 19, Garwin was a graduate student in physics at the University of Chicago under Enrico Fermi. After taking the first-year graduate courses, he decided to take the PhD exam and passed. In 1950, Garwin joined the UChicago physics department. Fermi called him “the only true genius I have ever met.”
In 1951 at age 23, Dr. Garwin had a central role in designing the world’s first hydrogen bomb. Dr Garwin never claimed credit for this or even told his family.
In 1954, Dr. Garwin visited his mentor Enrico Fermi a few weeks before his death. Fermi confided that he regretted not being more involved in crucial issues of public policy. To honor the memory of Enrico Fermi, Dr. Garwin dedicated the rest of his life to public policy and countering the dangers of his own invention, the hydrogen bomb.
Dr. Garwin told The New York Times’ reporter William Broad that “If I could wave a wand to make the H-bomb vanish, I would.”
To learn more about Garwin’s extraordinary life in science, read William J. Broad’s article.
NOTEWORTHY NEW BOOKS
Atomic Pilgrim is a riveting account by James Patrick Thomas of a 6,700-mile pilgrimage for peace. Father George Zabelka led the arduous journey across the USA and nine other countries to Bethlehem.
For Thomas, the experience was transformative. Returning to the USA, he sought the truth about radioactive contamination released from Hanford and other nuclear weapons sites. Atomic Pilgrim is an inspiring memoir that raises important questions for today about the human costs of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear War: A Scenario describes a realistic and terrifying scenario of nuclear war written by Pulitzer Prize finalist and national security reporter Annie Jacobsen. The book is based on more than a decade interviewing dozens of experts from former Secretary of Defense William Perry to Richard Garwin and a range of retired military and security officials.
As the author related in an interview with Mother Jones, “it doesn’t take but one weapon to set off a chain reaction to unleash the current arsenal…There are enough weapons in position right now to bring on a nuclear winter that would kill an estimated 5 billion people.”
The Economist described the book as ““At once methodical and vivid. In documenting the minutiae of the apocalypse, the writing is redolent of ‘Hiroshima’, a seminal article by John Hersey published in the New Yorker in 1946.”
NUCLEAR MUSEUM NEWS
The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History has launched a campaign to restore a Redstone Missile and a Convair RIM-2 Terrier Surface-to-Air Missile.
The Redstone, the first large liquid-fueled ballistic missile, paved the way for the U.S. space program and launched the first American astronaut. The Terrier played a crucial role in national defense as a vital surface-to-air missile.
Decades of exposure to the harsh desert climate have taken their toll. The vibrant insignia on the Redstone is fading, and the Terrier suffers from surface degradation. To learn more about the restoration of these Cold War artifacts, click here.
Since June 2019, the Atomic Heritage Foundation has partnered with the Museum and its first-class team who are now the stewards of AHF’s websites, documentary photographs, and artifacts. We look forward to continuing a very productive relationship.