Oral Histories

Frank G. Foote and James F. Schumar were metallurgists who worked on the Manhattan Project. Foote worked in metallurgy at the Metallurgical Lab at the University of Chicago, while Schumar developed procedures for cladding metallic uranium fuel rods with aluminum for Hanford’s B Reactor and Chicago Pile-3. They discuss the challenges of working with uranium metallurgy, from safety issues to the strange properties of uranium metal. They explain their involvement in designing the slugs used in early nuclear reactors. They also explain how they designed a method to extrude and machine uranium.

Alvin Weinberg was an American nuclear physicist who was in charge of the multiplication factor estimates for reactors in the Manhattan Project. He served as an assistant to Eugene Wigner, with whom he began to work at the University of Chicago in 1941, while taking frequent trips to Oak Ridge. Along with Wigner’s team, Weinberg assisted in designing reactors. He also contributed to the development of peaceful applications of nuclear power. Weinberg discusses Wigner’s rush to create the reactor due to the threat of a German atomic bomb, highlighting both the conflict and cooperation with DuPont.