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The cover of The Plutonium Files

The Plutonium Files

Eileen Welsome

How did American doctors and officials come to experiment with plutonium and radiation on people, and why did secrecy last so long?

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At a glance

Author
Eileen Welsome

Why read it

  • You will see how soldiers and patients ended up as research subjects for government programmes
  • You will learn how fallout from weapons tests reached ordinary communities, and what it did to their health
  • You will feel the human cost of secret experiments through the families of those who were injected

Who it is for

  • A reader interested in Cold War secrecy and medical ethics
  • A scientist or doctor who wants to understand informed consent
  • Someone wondering whether official reassurances can be trusted

Contents

  1. PROLOGUE
  2. PART ONE
  3. The “Product”
  4. THE ACID TASTE OF PLUTONIUM
  5. THE RAD LAB
  6. 1942: THE MET LAB
  7. A TOLERABLE DOSE
  8. THE MANHATTAN PROJECT IS LAUNCHED
  9. PLUTONIUM RISING
  10. PLANNING THE EXPERIMENT
  11. EBB CADE
  12. NEXT IN LINE: ARTHUR AND ALBERT
  13. TRINITY SITE
  14. A “SMALL PIECE OF THE SUN”
  15. THE QUEST CONTINUES
  16. THE ROCHESTER PRODUCTION LINE
  17. A MISDIAGNOSED HOUSEWIFE
  18. CHICAGO: UPPING THE DOSE
  19. POSTWAR BERKELEY: THE FINAL INJECTIONS
  20. PART TWO
  21. Atomic Utopia
  22. AT A CROSSROADS
  23. COMINGS AND GOINGS
  24. THE AEC AND THE POLITICS OF SECRECY
  25. SHIELDS WARREN: “PATRIOTIC ENOUGH TO LIE”
  26. “WRAPPED IN THE FLAG”
  27. THE VANDERBILT WOMEN
  28. THE FERNALD BOYS
  29. PART THREE
  30. The Proving Ground
  31. STALIN’S LABOR DAY SURPRISE
  32. THE FIRST GI GUINEA PIGS
  33. “HOT PARTICLES”
  34. SCORCHED EARTH MANEUVERS
  35. CITIZEN VOLUNTEERS
  36. THE CLOUD SAMPLERS
  37. DISPATCH FROM GROUND ZERO
  38. THE INVERTED MUSHROOM
  39. BODY-SNATCHING PATRIOTS
  40. PART FOUR
  41. “The Buchenwald Touch”
  42. “MICE OR MEN?”
  43. HOUSTON’S “PAPERCLIP” DOCTOR
  44. CINCINNATI’S BATTLEFIELD
  45. THE CHAMBERS OF OAK RIDGE
  46. CAPTIVE VOLUNTEERS: PRISONERS IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON
  47. THE PLUTONIUM EXPERIMENT: PHASE TWO
  48. “TRAGIC DEATHS FULL OF PITY AND SORROW”
  49. PART FIVE
  50. The Reckoning
  51. “WE’RE COMING CLEAN”
  52. REVELATIONS AND TRIBULATIONS
  53. JANUARY 1994: THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS
  54. HARVEST OF SORROW
  55. CLOSING THE BOOK
  56. A PRESIDENTIAL APOLOGY
  57. “NEVER AGAIN”
  58. WHITEWASHES, RED HERRINGS, AND COLD CASH
  59. EPILOGUE
  60. CHAPTER 28

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