Race for the Atomic Bomb

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book Version: I‘m Joe Holt and I was born and raised in Kentucky. […]

[At the top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book version: I thought the Hanford site was perfect the first time I […]

[Interviewed by S. L. Sanger, from Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995] I shouldn‘t boast but it is generally said, you see, I was in charge of the group which designed the reactors built at Hanford, and these reactors really worked. Fermi constructed the first nuclear reactor […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book version: I went out to the Du Pont Experimental Station in 1929, […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book version: The plutonium we metallurgists received was actually a fluoride, a dry […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book Version: Bill: When I came here I was 27 or 28 years […]

[At top is the edited version of the interview published by S. L. Sanger in Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford, Portland State University, 1995. For the full transcript that matches the audio of the interview, please scroll down.] Book version: I was working in mathematical biophysics at the University of Chicago. […]

John Shacter: John Shacter, S-H-A-C-T-E-R.  Interviewer: And your age? Shacter: My age? Eighty-four. Eighty-four and a half, going on 85! Interviewer: And how did you end up in Oak Ridge, in the Secret City? Shacter: Well, I’m going to make it fast, but I was born in Austria, spoke no English when I got here […]

[Interviewed by Cindy Kelly and Tom Zannes.] Tell us your name. Harry Kamack: I’m Harry Kamack. K-A-M-A-C-K.   Tell us where you’re from. Kamack: Well, I was born and raised in Connecticut, and when I was in high school my father was transferred to Atlanta. So I went to Georgia Tech, got a degree in […]

Anne McKusick: That’s A-N-N-E, M-C capital K-U-S-I-C-K. Cindy Kelly: Okay Anne, can you tell us where you were born and a little bit about— McKusick: Yes, I was born in Rochester, New York. My father was a physicist and was at Eastman Kodak Company. He had many young men working for him who eventually ended […]