SCIENTISTS AND SECURITY

• The Selection of Los Alamos, NM
• Los Alamos Site Acquisition
• The Making of Los Alamos
• Main Technical Area
• DP Plutonium Processing Site
• Satellite Technical Areas
• Scientists and Security
• Los Alamos Town Site
• Life at Los Alamos
• Los Alamos After the War

Security was a sensitive issue at Los Alamos. At what was to be the most secure of all the Manhattan Project sites, General Leslie Groves' intent was to maintain as much control as he could over the scientists. Initially, he planned to make Los Alamos a military laboratory, with the scientists in uniform as military officers. Lab director J. Robert Oppenheimer did not necessarily find this unattractive. Oppenheimer stressed the necessity for free internal communication within the laboratory, but he conceded that this meant tight controls to prevent leaks to the outside. Although strong opposition to the militarization of the laboratory from many of the scientists Oppenheimer was attempting to recruit forced Groves to back down, while reserving the right to impose militarization at a later date, the Los Alamos site itself became a military post and the security between the civilian lab and the outside world was no less intense.

So intense that many scientists in early 1943 had difficulty finding the laboratory. Nicholas Metropolis, for example, simply was handed a packet of papers containing cryptic instructions on how to get to Santa Fe, and then to a small, unmarked office on the Plaza. He was instructed to locate room number 9 at the Bishop Building. There was no number 9, and it was only after searching the building and extrapolating from rooms that were marked that he found the unmarked room. Metropolis knocked, and a voice behind the door asked, "Are you expected?" "I think so," he responded and gave his name, whereupon he was instructed to go to 109 East Palace Street. This was the entry way to the lab. The office was run by Dorothy McKibbin, a lifetime resident of Santa Fe appointed by Oppenheimer to manage the Santa Fe reception center. Her job was to greet new arrivals, orient them for their trip up to the mesa, handle logistics, and in general to serve as the primary liaison between the residents of Los Alamos and ordinary American life.

Oppenheimer had jurisdiction over security in the Main Technical Area. By June 1943, he had clarified information dissemination policies. Access to written materials was given to anyone who could work more effectively or maintain security more easily with the information. Oral communication was not regulated, but everyone was urged to think before speaking. Group leaders could grant access to specific pieces of information, and division leaders could grant general access to any properly cleared individual by writing a recommendation. The library maintained a list of personnel who had been given access to all or portions of secret documents. To enhance internal technical communication, the laboratory instituted a technical colloquium that soon became a weekly tradition and an integrating force within the lab. Groves complained about too much discussion of the overall Manhattan Project, but Oppenheimer countered that the colloquium boosted morale. They compromised by allowing staff members, the scientists, but not non-staff, such as technicians, to attend. Groves nonetheless forbade discussion of engineering details at the Met Lab or Oak Ridge, and of production schedules, even though such information was vital to Los Alamos.

Physical security was more straightforward. A 9½-foot-high woven-wire fence, with two barbed-wire top strands, surrounded the Tech Area, with automatic alarm system attached to the fence and 159 1500-watt mounted flood lights to light the vicinity. The Tech Area was encompassed within a second fence surrounding the community as well. Military police guarded the three entrances to the Tech Area and the two entrances to the reservations. All project personnel, civilian and military, were required to have security clearances. Everyone at the Los Alamos site had to have a pass. Passes were classified as "Project" or "Technical" area passes, and appropriate badges were issued in addition to the permanent pass and worn at all times in the respective areas. Badges of one color and design were issued to staff members, group leaders, and other key personnel in the Tech Area, and to key military personnel, entitling them to admission to certain areas. Badges of another color were issued to non-key members of the technical group, construction employees in the Tech Area, and clerical employees. A visitor list was set up for each of the satellite technical areas, and only those appearing by name and badge number on the list were permitted to enter the site. Some of the outlying sites also had security fences. Peep-proof board fences surrounded the Anchor Ranch gun site and V site. Security infractions at the laboratory were common but, for the most part, minor. Scientists tended to be forgetful about such things as locking up documents, and nightly patrols confiscated on average some thirty documents a week. These infractions were of concern to Oppenheimer and other lab officials because they feared that they might lead the military to take control of laboratory security.

Censorship of all correspondence, except for official mail, was instituted in December 1943. All personnel, military and civilian, were advised that personal communications were being censored. Although telephones were few and far between at Los Alamos, especially in the town, limited monitoring of long-distance telephone calls was conducted under the supervision of the security office. All incoming and outgoing telegrams and teletype messages also were reviewed.

Freedom of movement was severely restricted. Residents could leave the immediate vicinity only in emergencies. After these restrictions on travel were modified in fall 1944, trips to the surrounding area—but not Santa Fe or Albuquerque-were allowed. To help enforce the limitation of travel to specified areas, a network of Army G-2 security men blanketed nearby towns. Scientists were allowed to visit other sites, laboratories, universities, and scientific personnel, but only on authority of Oppenheimer and after clearance for the visit had been obtained from the security office. Prominent scientists used code names while traveling. Oppenheimer, who also travelled with a bodyguard, was James Oberhelm.

In retrospect, concerns about security were justified. Not one but two scientists, unbeknownst to each other, spied for the Soviet Union at Los Alamos during the war. Klaus Fuchs, part of the nineteen-member British mission, passed to his Soviet handlers detailed information regarding atomic weapons design. Theodore Hall, a graduate of Harvard University at age 18 and the youngest scientist at Los Alamos, supplied data on implosion and other aspects of atomic weapons design that served as an important supplement and confirmation of Fuchs's material.

• The Selection of Los Alamos, NM
• Los Alamos Site Acquisition
• The Making of Los Alamos
• Main Technical Area
• DP Plutonium Processing Site
• Satellite Technical Areas
• Scientists and Security
• Los Alamos Town Site
• Life at Los Alamos
• Los Alamos After the War

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