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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

J. Samuel (“Sam”) Walker is the former historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the author of Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan. He is also the author of five books on the history of regulating nuclear power, including Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective and The Road to Yucca Mountain: The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States.

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Ray Smith

Trinity Site

Ray Smith is the historian at the Y-12 National Security Complex. His specific focus is the history of Oak Ridge, and he is intimately acquainted with the uranium enrichment processes undertaken at the Y-12, K-25, and S-50 plants during the Manhattan Project, and how the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs worked.

Joseph Papalia

Wendover, UT

Joseph Papalia is an official historian of the 509th Composite Group, the US Army Air Force unit created specifically for dropping atomic bombs during World War II.

Marilyn Hanna

Oak Ridge, TN

Marilyn Hanna was trained as a clerk typist, and worked for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge and later for the Security and Patent divisions in Washington, DC.

David Holloway

David Holloway, author of Stalin and the Bomb: the Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939-1956, is a professor of History at Stanford University.