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INTERVIEW WITH L HEMPELMANN BY MARKS AND MIAZGA AT 10 AM ON 05/01/74

HREX; BODY BURDENS; CONSENT ISSUES; ETHICS; INTERVIEWS; PLUTONIUM; PLUTONIUM INJECTION EXPERIMENT

Location - DOE/NNSA NUCLEAR TESTING ARCHIVE Address - P.O. Box 98521 City - Las Vegas State - NV Zip - 89193-8521 Phone - (702)794-5106 Fax - (702)862-4240 Email - NTA@NV.DOE.GOV

LEGAL DOCUMENT

1974 May 01

Never classified

0003

NV0700010

1994 Aug 27

2012 May 14

THIS THREE PAGE TYPEWRITTEN DOCUMENT WITH EDITING MARKS IS A DRAFT OF NOTES ABOUT AN INTERVIEW OF DR. LOUIS HEMPLEMANN BY DR. MARKS AND MR. MIAZGA. ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO DIRECT INDICATION OF WHO WROTE THE NOTES, THE FORMAT AND STYLE ARE SIMILAR TO OTHER SETS OF INTERVIEW NOTES WRITTEN BY S. MARKS. THERE IS NO INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT ABOUT INFORMED CONSENT. DR. HEMPLEMANN WAS LEADER OF THE HEALTH DIVISION AT LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY (LASL) FROM 1943 TO 1948. AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW, HE WAS PROFESSOR OF RADIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. THERE IS NO INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT ABOUT INFORMED CONSENT. DR. HEMPLEMANN STATED THAT AT THE TIME HE KNEW VERY LITTLE ABOUT THE PLUTONIUM EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT AT ROCHESTER, CHICAGO, OR BERKELEY. WHEN CONFRONTED BY THE INTERVIEWERS WITH MEETING NOTES BY DR. LANGHAM, A MEMO HE HIMSELF HAD WRITTEN TO DR. J. R. OPPENHEIMER, AND VISITS BY DR. FREIDELL (ALL ITEMS THAT TEND TO SUGGEST THAT HE DID KNOW OF THE PLUTONIUM EXPERIMENTS), HE CLAIMED NOT TO RECALL THE MEETING OR VISITS CLEARLY. FURTHERMORE, HE STATED THAT DR. LANGHAM WAS THE POINT OF CONTACT FOR THE LOS ALAMOS PARTICIPATION IN THE INJECTION OF THE ROCHESTER PATIENTS. DR. HEMPLEMANN WAS ABLE TO DISCUSS THE NEED FOR DATA TO ESTIMATE MORE RELIABLY PLUTONIUM BODY BURDENS IN WORKERS. KILOGRAM QUANTITIES OF PLUTONIUM BEGAN ARRIVING AT LOS ALAMOS IN MARCH OF 1945. FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTHS IT WAS NECESSARY TO USE "VERY CRUDE" FACILITIES.