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Recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico under J Robert Oppenheimer, Feynman was also tasked with co-ordinating research and development between Los Alamos and the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee.
Originally known as the Clinton Engineer Works. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), played a pivotal role in the 1940s as a key site for the Manhattan Project, the United States’ secret effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. Established in 1943, Oak Ridge was one of several facilities tasked with producing the fissile materials necessary for nuclear weapons.
At its peak, Oak Ridge employed over 75,000 people, many living in a purpose-built, fenced-in community. Security was paramount; workers were often told only what they needed to know, and the town operated under strict surveillance to prevent leaks.
On arrival at Oak Ridge, Feynman was shocked by the ignorance of those employed there, a consequence of the secrecy demanded by the army.
He was told not to inform the employees of the dangers, but responded, as he had been advised, that “Los Alamos cannot be responsible for the safety of the Oak Ridge Plant unless… He was then allowed to educate them on the dangers posed by e.g. wheeling glass containers of green water (uranium nitrate solution) around the facility.
“I found that the situation was even worse than (Emil) Segré reported. Because he noticed certain boxes in big lots in a room, but he didn’t notice a lot of boxes in another room on the other side of the same wall.” “Now, if you have too much stuff together, it goes up you see”.(1)
That has to be the understatement of the century; Feynman reportedly likened the uranium storage to “tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon.”
Feynman married Arline Greenbaum in June 1942, having previously been prevented from doing so by the terms of his Ph.D Scholarship. Arline was seriously ill with tuberculosis at the time and given two years to live.
At Los Alamos, Feynman found a sanatorium for Arline in Albuquerque (Thank you, spellchecker) some distance from the remote Los Alamos site.
He borrowed a fellow researcher’s car to visit her. That colleague was one Klaus Fuchs!
When asked who he thought might be a spy, Fuchs named Feynman – who had a hobby of cracking safes for the craic. The FBI then created a large file on Feynman.
Feynman also recounted that the cabinets housing high security documents at Los Alamos were secured by padlocks and a steel bar, but had a gap at the rear where documents could be accessed or removed by hand.(2)
Richard Phillips Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga in 1965. He passed away on February 15, 1988 at the age of 69. His last words were: “I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring.”[3]
(1)Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman.’ Vintage, 1992 Pp 122.
(2)Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman.’ Vintage, 1992 Pp 119.
(3)Gribbin, John; Gribbin, Mary (1997).Richard Feynman: A Life in Science. Dutton.ISBN.OCLC636838499.
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