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27. Mother Nature’s emissary: Interviews with Richard Mingus and Al O’Donnell, who introduced me to Mueller’s widow.

28. Project 57 balloons broke loose: Telex TWX 01A 2008242, From Reeves Attention Gen AD Starbird, 1957 Apr 20 AM 3:39; also see “Feasibility of Weapon Delivery By Free Balloons,” OSTI ID: 10150708; Legacy ID: DE98056381, 34 pages.

29. hand-fired by an employee from EG&G: Operation Plumbbob, Summary Report, Test Group 57, Nevada Test Site, Extracted Version, May–October 1957, ITR-1515 (EX). Sandia Corporation, Albuquerque, NM, October 10, 1958. “At 0350 PST. April 24, a surface charge of 110 pounds of stick dynamite was fired 1,000 feet east of Zone C (as position 42-61) to verify predictions of cloud height. Timing and firing circuits were the ultimate in simplicity; the weapon was hand fired by EG&G at the Test Group Director’s instruction.”

30. fallout was to the north: Ibid., 55 (6.1., Weather Observations). The weather was meticulously recorded, which is ironic given how “fast and loose” everything else was running out at the test site, as stated by an EG&G employee who also worked as a liaison to the Pentagon. “April 10, 1957. Hodographs during the period 2100 to 2330 PST showed that satisfactory conditions existed at 2100 PST, but a recommendation for cancellation was made after the wind shifted to northwest on the 2300 PST soundings. April 1F, [sic] 1957. Satisfactory wind conditions existed at 0441 PST, but the morning inversion broke more quickly than expected. By 0530 PST, winds were too strong and the shear had disappeared, forcing cancellation. April 20, 1957, Intermittent light showers began at 2330 PST on the 19th and continued through the remainder of the night and following morning. Hodographs indicated that satisfactory winds existed during this period, but moisture on the instrumentation forced cancellation. April 24, 1957. Scattered middle clouds were observed and a moderate dew formed during the night. The sequence of wind changes from 0415 to 0756 is shown by the hodographs. The shot was fired at 0627 PST.”

31. The bomb was indeed dirty: In June of 1982, Sandia Corporation produced an extracted 102-page report on the results of its dirty bomb or plutonium-contamination effects study on Project 57 for the director of the Defense Nuclear Agency, in lieu of a proposed cleanup of Area 13 (see chapter 18). Information in this chapter comes from portions of that extracted study. The stated objectives of the project “were to estimate the immediate and long-term distribution of plutonium and gain an understanding of how this distribution comes about, to conduct a biomedical evaluation of plutonium-laden environments, to investigate relevant methods of decontamination, and to evaluate alpha field survey instruments and monitoring procedures.” And yet Area 13 soil decontamination was not even considered for twenty-five years.

32. “extract” of the original report: The full, still-classified document, originally prepared by Sandia Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October of 1958, is called ITR-1515.

33. “the alpha half-life of plutonium-239”: Ibid., 17 (“Motivation and Mission, 1.1 Historical Resume”). The text reads: “once in the stomach, their stay in the body is short, for they are excreted as an inert material with virtually no body assimilation. Inhalation is a different mechanism entirely and one which presents a considerable threat. Any particle small enough to reach the lower respiratory tract apparently has an excellent chance of clinging to alveolar surfaces and staying to do radiation damage… One cannot outlive the influence, because the alpha half life of plutonium-239 is of the order of 20,000 years.”

34. “respirable plutonium remarkably far downwind”: Ibid., 7 (“Foreword, Abstract”).

35. “earthworms moved 18 tons of soil”: Ibid., 101 (8.6, “A New Program”). “Finally, Dr. Kermit Larson agreed to exploit an idea which grew out of discussions among participants in the anniversary measurements—earthworms. Compton’s Encyclopedia